


A Playdate With Misery

by MadHatterBoxGhost



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Explicit Language, Hurt Dean Winchester, Hurt Sam Winchester, Love Confessions, M/M, Psychological Horror, Rescue Missions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-11
Updated: 2017-03-11
Packaged: 2018-10-02 19:00:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 23,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10224965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadHatterBoxGhost/pseuds/MadHatterBoxGhost
Summary: Nothing is worse than having a squabble with an absentee Father; except of course, when he tells you that a long lost family member has entrapped a few loved ones of yours in a dangerous, haunted forest on the island nation of Japan.For Gabriel, this means heading to Aokigahara Forest, the ‘Suicide Forest’ as termed by the people who know it best, and working with one Winchester in order to find and rescue another!  But can he work together with them after everything has happened?  And exactly what do they mean to him in the first place?And who, or what, exactly, placed them into this situation to begin with?





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

“Oh, fuck you!” 

Gabriel had been walking down the same patch of road for ten minutes now. Same rock, same cracks in the asphalt, same slightly offset striping job. A curly mop of hair walked behind him in momentary silence. 

“Well, I wouldn’t need to do this if you’d simply stop and listen..” 

Gabriel balled up his fists, slamming them into his jacket pockets, his shoulders halfway to his ears. Chuck sighed, stopping in frustration as Gabriel continued on grumbling under his breath. 

“Oh, come on, you’re being childish, Gabe. We need to talk, we don’t have time for…” 

Gabriel’s back went stiff as he froze, the red clay grinding against his heels as he wheeled around at lightning speed. Chuck stood back, completely expressionless as he took in eyes that he had painstakingly crafted himself, now almost lit from the inside out, wide and molten. It had been the purest gold he had ever managed to make, and Chuck had to choke back the grin on his face at his handiwork as he observed his son stride furiously toward him. 

“No, fuck you! You left, not even a goodbye note. If you think resurrecting me puts you back on my Christmas card list, you can send me back to nothingness! I’ve got nothing to say to you, and I know you have absolutely nothing to say that would interest me in the slightest.” Chuck could feel the heat coming off Gabriel in waves as he stalked closer, lowering his voice, “and you don’t get to call me that, you don’t ever call me that. You haven’t earned that, not even close.” 

Gabriel paused for a moment, taking in a sharp breath before speaking again, “Now, if you will kindly let go of the damned road, I’ll take off and you can continue to play Dad of the millenia.” Gabriel turned back around as quickly as he could, stalking off toward the exact same fencepost he had been trying to reach before Chuck had decided to stop time in that particular square foot of road. He was determined to fly straight to Lebanon; straight to the guys, and to apologize.  
.   
“He’s got Sam.” 

The only three words that could even slow Gabriel down stopped him dead in his tracks. 

“Where is Lucifer?” Gabriel’s whole body was rigid, as he turned back to face his father; the straight line in his brow made him look more dangerous than his stature usually allowed. 

Chuck winced at the venom in the name as he looked down at the dirt road, trying his best not to remember when they were still a family. The pain of those memories were nothing compared to the constant bitter awareness that there was no way to mend the catastrophic damage. Gabriel, however, looked ready to rip apart the gates of hell that instant, determined to ensure he hadn’t died in vain the first time. 

Chuck kicked at a bit of the road, his eyes boring a hole through the dust as it hung suspended in place and took a breath, his shoulders rising in response to his muscles unease. 

“It’s not Lucifer…” 

All of the color drained out of his son’s face as Gabriel’s lip drew up further; there were few beings in existence who could draw this kind of disgust from Gabriel, fewer still that terrified both of them this much. 

“Where is he? What the hell does he want with me? Oh, fuck, Sammy…”

“It’s not just Sam, he has Cas and Dean”, Chuck stated warily.

“You mean to tell me the Winchesters and my dear baby brother are all together in an impossible, terrifying situation? No shit, and I guess I’m playing Tom Cruise in this particular sequel. I’m gonna ask you again, Where is he?”

Chuck laughed uncomfortably. “I tried blasting my way through, got knocked all the way to San francisco, probably would have landed in the middle of Oklahoma if I hadn’t grabbed the Golden Gate Bridge. I almost took it straight out, boy, was that a close one.” Chuck was desperate to ease the tension between them, his jaw clenched as he forced a laugh between his teeth. A needle struck through his heart as he remembered the long stretches of unfettered joy shared between the two of them, reaching through time itself to share the greatest jokes the universe had to offer. His throat grew painfully tight as he grabbed onto whatever was holding the rest of the memories back, hoping to himself they wouldn’t betray him till Gabriel left. 

“I don’t care if it knocked you into the middle of Azerbaijan, you stopped being my concern centuries ago, when you left! My only concern right now is getting to…” Gabriel stuttered for a moment,“ All I care about right now is getting Sam and them out of there before he can…” he visibly shuddered, “Where the hell is he?” Gabriel was already starting to panic, his mind racing from scenario to scenario, each one more unnerving than the last. He found himself breathing in deep, and grinding his teeth as he spit those last few words at Chuck again. 

“You aren’t going to like it. I can’t go with you, obviously, but you and Dean should be able to get to Sam and Cas before anything irreparable happens.”

“Irreparable? Where is he?” Gabriel was shouting mere inches from his father’s face, so many other questions zooming around in his head at the speed of light, and only one of them was going to get him to Sam. If Chuck was stalling, a part of Gabriel didn’t want to hear the news; a part of him wanted to curl up in his father’s lap and cry. His heart was still split wide open from what his brother had done, and now he was in danger of losing the only good thing he had managed to find in almost a millennia. Gabriel swallowed it down, feeling it twist his stomach as it hit his gut, forcing bile to rise up his throat in an attempt to purge himself of the thought. His eyes were wide and glaring, searching for any muscle twitch, any kind of movement from his father indicating a direction, desperate not to stay a moment longer in a place he wasn’t wanted. 

“ It’s Japan… he’s in Japan.” 

The Arizona desert was beautiful at sunset, one of his more artistic periods, Chuck mused to himself. A small brown spotted bird streaked out from the corner of his eye, drawing Chuck’s attention away from the burn creeping around the edges of his eyelids. The graceful little wren swooped down from her nest landing at the foot of a large ragged bush lining the barbed wire fencing, it’s sharp green thorns giving way to beautiful red flowers swinging where they hung in the warm breeze.

He drew in a heavy breath, letting it stretch the worry lining his chest; for a moment, Chuck was dangerously close to persuading himself to stop everything. With a mere thought he could shut everything down for a while, just walk away for a few million moments, leaving a suspended wreck in his wake. Gabriel’s eyes rooted his feet to the spot though, his tightly drawn lips showing a determination to ignore the tendrils of panicked grace attempting to reach his father for comfort and Chuck was smart enough not to mention it.   
“If there’s nothing else, I’m gonna attempt to rescue three morons who apparently have Lookin for trouble in bright neon flashing directly above their head.” Before Gabriel could turn around and take off, Chuck reached into his pocket and pulled out a blindingly bright necklace. 

“Give this to Dean, it will still be glowing when you reach him, this and that picture in your pocket should be enough to convince him you aren’t Lucifer. I’ll see what help I can send your way, but don’t expect much, I’m sorry, I wish I could do more.” 

The amulet lit up Gabe’s jacket pocket, his grace clinging to the bits of his father still there, feeling it try to comfort him in return, and he broke, for just a moment. A small hitch in Gabriel’s breath gave him away as Chuck lightly touched the side of his face. In an instant, before Gabriel could say anything more to his father, everything shifted, and he was standing in the doorway of Bobby Singer’s cabin watching Dean Winchester running toward a small child with long ruddy colored hair. The kid was standing on a dock a little too close to the edge, peering down into the water below. It only took a moment for everything to register with Gabriel and he was out the door, sprinting toward Dean as fast as he could.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The night they left Indiana, Sam came back out of the hotel, his face disturbingly expressionless. Dean had almost commented on the tears that had obviously tracked down his cheeks, but closed his mouth again when he saw Sam’s jaw tighten, trembling slightly. They drove through the night, only stopping when Dean began to fall asleep behind the wheel.

For a few nights Dean tried giving Sam his space, constantly keeping his brother in the corner of his eye just in case. Every night since, Sam had taken to drinking himself halfway to oblivion before passing out, always mumbling Gabriel’s name in his inebriated nightmares. At first, Dean thought he should feel grateful it wasn’t Lucifer’s name Sam was screaming for a little while, until Sam called out for Gabriel, the timbre in his voice hollow and cracked around the edges, sometimes it was downright bitter, stabbing Dean right in the chest.

“Sammy, we gotta talk man.”

Dean watched his brothers darkened outline from behind, a worried puff of air escaping his chest as his brother took a long draft from the bottle of whiskey in his hand. 

“No.” Sam’s voice was graveled and broken, that one word speaking volumes to his brother.

He only turned his head for a moment, barely long enough for Dean to get a good look at his face. His eyes were bloodshot and rimmed red, looking straight through him. Dean could see him remembering, going over and over every single fuck up and argument; it was a vicious cycle Dean understood all too well, watching as his own memories of Gabriel began to pop up. There was quite a bit Dean didn’t understand, and at this point asking Sam was out of the question. 

The minute he popped up in the hotel in Broward County and saw those two shaking hands, he knew something bad was going to happen. A harsh laugh escaped his mouth as he now wished he could bring the guy back, if for no other reason than to erase his brother’s pain. Castiel hadn’t taken his death well either, needing some time alone to process everything. Dean felt stretched thin, his family was falling apart and once again he felt the inability to fix it like a crushing weight on his chest.  
“Dammit Gabriel.” Dean muttered under his breath, when Sam whipped around, Dean winced. Sam’s eyes narrowed, his jaw clenched tight trying to control the acrid snear tugging at his lip. “I didn’t mean it like that Sammy, I’m sorry. I’m just tired of seeing you like this.”

“I said I don’t want to talk about it. Just drop it Dean, playing therapist was never your strong suit.”

“Come on man, I’m just trying to help. I mean I know you two got pretty close....” Dean stopped before he could shove his foot any further in his mouth and looked down at his dinner, his hamburger suddenly the most interesting thing in the room. 

To be honest he was surprised at how well they ended up getting along since Sam and Gabe were a mess at first, always arguing. Dean was pissed at the beginning when he heard the idea; Gabriel had killed him, a lot. Sam had asked for some leeway this time, and while he had put up a massive fight at first, Dean had caught a glance at Castiel staring at his brother. He was still mad, but something in him looked more relaxed around the archangel; Dean knew when he was outnumbered, and this was a battle he wasn’t going to win, for now. 

Gabriel would pop in and out, occasionally assisting on a case, most times just taking Sam with him places, both of them returning hours later. For some reason, Dean never felt it was his place to ask where they went or what they did. The week before they hit Ohio, Gabriel stopped coming around; Sam had been pretty upset then, but he hadn’t gotten this drunk.   
He had expected a blow up of some sort, had almost hoped that Sam would yell at him and get it out of his system. Watching Sam cry would honestly be better than the caustic mood he had been in, the silence now mutilating Dean’s ears. 

“Right, close…” 

With that, Sam got up and walked into the bathroom. He locked the door behind him leaving Dean in the dim lamplight listening to his brother’s large frame thud up against the flimsy door and drop to the floor. Dean looked back down at his dinner, contemplating a burger and pie he was no longer certain he wanted. 

That was the last thing Dean remembered before blacking out.

 

Dean’s sense of smell kicked back in first, motor oil and sage wafting around the hardwood floor he was currently laying on. A small countdown to panic began to tick away in the back of his head as he tried to move around. His eyes were slow to cooperate, his brain violently pulsing against the inside of his skull, the light filtering behind his eyelids did nothing to help the pain. The film slowly slipped from his eyes with every strained blink and at first glance he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. His head was surrounded by books, some stacked in precariously tall piles around the small room he was laying in. Dean’s eyebrows pulled together as he continued to look around the room, taking it all in, but still unable to believe it. 

“Sammy!” Already tired muscles protested painfully as Dean stood up and stretched. He walked over to the couch, looking out the window for Baby and the countdown moved closer to zero. 

“Son of a bitch, Sammy! Hey, where’s the car!” 

Dean’s fingertips grazed the short blonde hair at the nape of his neck as he wandered into the kitchen. The smaller window over the sink also showed no signs of the car, something began to tug at the back of his brain, something wasn’t right. The pain in his head was slowing him down though, making it almost impossible to put the pieces together. He still needed to find Sam anyway, that was his first priority, then he’d figure out how the hell they got to Sioux Falls in one night. 

“Sammy! Come on man, where the hell are you?” Still no answer. 

“Cas. I know you needed some time off, but I can’t find Sam, so please get down here.” 

Dean’s counter ticked down again, gripping his knife handle he turned toward the stairs instantly stopping short when he noticed the back door was wide open. His brows knitted together, flexing his fingers around the blade as he shoved the throbbing sensation in his head to the side, closing his eyes and shaking it slightly. As he got closer to the door, momentary panic began to flood his lungs.

A large yard full of deep green grass stretched out toward a small lake, a dock gently bobbing up and down, the water reflecting a murky grey color Dean found unsettling. The whole atmosphere outside of the house felt hazy and dim. A weird gloomy filter seemed to permeate everything around him distracting him momentarily, from the smaller figure standing just at the edge of the dock. The long ruddy hair gave him away almost instantly and Dean broke into a dead sprint for the dock in a panic, wondering if this was a nightmare. 

“Lucas! Get away from there!” 

The boy didn’t turn around, as if he hadn’t heard Dean at all, pushing him to run faster, making it halfway across the lawn before hearing someone behind him shouting. 

“Dean…! Shit…” Dean slowed down a fraction, and pulled out his knife, feeling it launch from his hand toward the shoreline as someone barreled into him from behind, knocking him face down on the lawn. 

Snap! 

“Dammit! You have got to be kidding me!” Dean was rolled around quickly, giving him a small window to swing, his fist colliding painfully with its target before he could register who he was hitting. 

“Well it’s nice to see you too Dean-o…”


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3   
Gabriel had about five seconds to roll out of Dean’s way before he came up swinging, despite his throbbing hand, his dark eyes only made the drawn scowl on his face seem more unnerving. Dean’s head whipped around quickly searching for his knife, his body squared back with his target when he couldn’t find it. Gabriel continued to stare at Dean for a few moments, unable to figure out his next move before Dean lowered his broad shoulders at Gabriel’s stomach and charged. Apparently Dean was determined to take him down, weapon or no, making Gabriel freeze a moment longer than he should have.  
The slope Dean was running up did him no favors in regards to speed, but to the angel’s brief amusement, it didn’t seem to slow down the enraged hunter. Dean’s fists began to clench as he picked up steam, causing him to wince noticeably. Gabriel’s nose wrinkled up as he realized he had broken Dean’s hand, making a note to fix that as soon as he could get control of the situation. The force of Dean slamming into him knocked Gabriel off balance, throwing him backwards flat on his ass. The moment Gabriel began to fly backward though, he noticed Dean’s pupils track some sort of movement behind him; Dean’s mind seeming to momentarily forget his opponent as he grabbed for the object. Dean didn’t have to scramble too far, and Gabriel didn’t move from the grass he’d been firmly planted in, his eyes turning toward whatever had distracted the guy.  
It was still glowing, the feeling of his father’s essence beginning to fade in subtle waves, Gabriel’s grace instinctively saddened at the loss. Dean’s hand closed around the familiar dark cord as he held it out accusingly toward the man still on the ground currently reaching back into his pocket. 

“Where the hell did you get this? Who the hell are you, and don’t you dare tell me your Gabriel or so help me, I will kill you.” The hunter’s voice rumbled heavy in his chest, the tremor in it displaying the thin veil of self control just begging for any excuse to be ripped to shreds. Gabriel’s eyes darted from Dean’s face to his hand, watching as the blood vessels pulsed against the quickly swelling knuckles. Wordlessly, Gabriel pulled the photo out of his pocket, unfolding the well worn creases and held it out expectantly, only moving to get up when Dean snatched it from his hand.

Moments passed in silence as Dean stared at the picture, flipping it over to see the scribbled ink and marker on the back. Happy mother’s day. Penned in faded sharpy directly above two nearly illegible names, one in dark green ink having been badly smudged, the other a bright purple with a butterfly scribbled on in an attempt at artistic flare. He flipped the photo back over staring down at a young woman, long curly hair tumbling down past a white diamond print dress, her hands wrapped loosely around a small girl and boy, obviously siblings, who looked less than thrilled at having to be there. A date was written at the bottom in Sam’s handwriting, Nov 1, 2005. 

Dean had been so distracted with the photo, he barely noticed Gabriel grabbing his wrist, turning his head just in time to see a familiar light emanating from inside the angel’s hand. Instantly the pain was gone, his bones knitting themselves back together under the already repaired muscles. The feeling flowing through his hand didn’t have the same warm meticulous nature Dean had come to expect from Castiel’s grace, causing him to frown for a moment as he realized how much comfort that feeling provided him. Gabriel’s grace finally withdrew from Dean’s now fully repaired hand and he dropped Dean’s wrist, allowing the still shocked speechless man to stuff the necklace and photo in his pocket.

“Can I tell you I’m me now?” Gabriel glanced passed Dean’s head, still keeping an eye on the boy down by the docks. “Look, I’m sure you have a ton of questions but could we save them for later. We have got to go. You haven’t found the moose and my brother yet have you?” Gabriel already knew the answer to that last question, considering it the last hope of a desperate angel. 

“You mean you don’t have them? You didn’t do any of this?” Dean’s brain finally caught up with his reality, swarmed by about a million questions. 

“I have them.” 

A small, vaguely familiar voice came from next to Dean, the skin on his palm suddenly registering a small, balled up fist grasping it tightly. Dean didn’t want to look down, ripping his hand away from the cold, rubbery skin, attempting to wipe off the corrupted film he felt crawling over his flesh onto his jeans. As casually as he could, Dean moved closer toward Gabriel. He scanned the ground around him for another moment, still looking for a glint that would give away where his knife was, hoping Gabriel could hear him praying for help in the search. 

“Looking for this?” 

The small thing spoke again, Dean’s body shuddering in protest at the hollow tone in the child’s voice, as if all the empathy and good will had been drained out of Lucas. The glint of his knife caught his eye and Dean looked down, finally letting his eyes trail over the child’s face. Dean’s eyes went wide as he felt Gabriel’s hand on his arm, squeezing tightly, as if attempting to steady the frightened man. He’d seen his fair share of demons, their coal black eyes had always been slightly unnerving, as if they were bragging that no soul was there anymore. These orbs had no color to them, they were a void of inked, empty clouds swirling and pitching about, making way for a long thin pearl colored thread dancing around, appearing and disappearing into the vacuous fog in an obscenely predatory manner. 

Dean glanced sideways at Gabriel before lunging toward his knife, held casually in the child’s hand, he would figure out how to save Lucas after he got the weapon away from him. The child’s reflexes were instantaneous though, and before Dean could close the distance, the knife flew out of the boy’s hand. With barely a flick of his wrist, the knife launched behind Lucas, landing with scarcely an audible splash a good fourth of the way into the lake, Dean ran past Lucas a ways, stopping dead in his tracks in frustration.

“Come on, let them go. They didn’t know what they were doing. We don’t have to do this.” Dean heard the voice come from directly behind him, turning back around, Gabriel had moved between him and the child, one arm attempting to keep Dean back and the other gesturing toward the kid, giving Dean flashbacks. Slowly he gestured for Dean to back up, that he could handle this, unfortunately either Dean didn’t get the message or he willfully ignored it because he stayed put, right beside Gabriel. The boy that Dean kept calling Lucas just looked at Gabriel for a moment, his wide, sharp toothed grin preceding the cold, echoed giggle that made his stomach roll in on itself almost painfully. 

“Now why would I do that? Cousin. They invited me here, which means they are already mine anyways, and I want to have fun.”

“Then just take me, let the rest of them go, this is all about family right?”

Lucas giggled again, his eyes darting from Dean, brows creased in confusion, breathing heavily through flared nostrils to Gabriel, eyes barely holding back the panic behind them. “This isn’t about you Gabriel, you’re just a bonus… this is about them.” his greying skin sloughing off a tiny finger, blackened sludge surrounding the pale muscles oozed off to the ground, Dean’s gaze going with it, shuffling his feet under him, uncomfortable and obviously disturbed, yet still determined to back up his current partner. 

Gabriel, who the hell is this guy? Gabriel wasn’t sure if that was meant for him to hear or not but some part of Dean was constantly reaching out to him, causing Gabriel to wonder how often the hunter had done this with Castiel. He had to admit, it made a lot of strategic sense, in normal situations; this was not one of them. Turning around, he let an exasperated sigh escape his chest, 

“This, is my cousin, the essence of misery. He doesn’t belong in this universe, and if we’re lucky, and I mean really lucky, we will all make it out of here with our sanity in shreds.” Quickly silencing Dean’s questions for the moment, he turned back to the false child,   
“What’s the game then Mark Summers? Let’s get this show on the road.” Gabriel was determined not to give the bastard any more visible satisfaction, but his voice still sounded too tense to pull off his usual airy attitude, making him sound aggravated, which suited him just fine at the moment.

“Let Lucas go and tell me where my brother is you bastard and maybe i’ll go easy on you, maybe.” Dean blinked, and Lucas was gone, in a flash, Sam was standing next to him, his mouth covered in blood; his hand was cold, quickly grazing Dean’s face in a mocking gesture. Dean sneered, he could still feel the oil on his face, causing his skin to attempt to shrink away from the unholy residue. 

“Such a good big brother, are you sure it’s Sammy you’re worried about, i’m sure Gabriel has his own vested interest in finding your brother; but what about poor little Castiel? You’re not worried about your little angel?” Sam vanished before either of them could react, a tan trench coat popping up at the edge of the lake, his hands swirling the shallow water around his feet before looking on either side and standing up. Dean’s eyes began to see red as Castiel’s face turned around, those same dead dark circles taking place of the blue eyes that usually projected Cas’ wonderfully naive nature.

Gabriel was livid at this point, keeping up stride for stride as Dean barreled down to the lake side, he assumed to punch the not-Castiel in the face, repeatedly. While Dean was almost as bright as his brother, Gabriel had grown to anticipate, and in some cases come to respect his punch first ask questions later approach. He didn’t have to worry about that for long though as Dean looked down into the swirling pools of water, Dean’s skin going pale in a second, as Gabriel came up beside the sickened hunter. 

The water roiled up images on either side of them, somehow staying perfectly still despite the waves crashing past them to the shoreline. The one Dean was fixated on had closed in on blue eyes staring back up at him, dark and almost expressionless, Castiel’s lips were drawn tight, making them look more chapped than usual. As the image panned outward, he saw the target of Cas’ discomforting expression, something that looked exactly like him, loomed just shy of the light, a shadow cast over his face, arms folded across his chest. Wordlessly, Castiel turned around and walked away, Dean noticing Cas’ fists clenching as the distance between them increased before the image faded away completely, the swirling water dying back down to match the waves. 

Gabriel didn’t want to look at the other one, his body going rigid in defiance as he began to turn his head toward the other whirling pool of darkness. Sam was standing over Gabriel’s body, the shadow of his wings splayed out under Sam’s feet. The sight of his own lifeless body made him squirm slightly, rubbing his chest at the still fresh memory, realizing how absolutely not ready he was for something this flat out nightmare ish. The look of bitterness and disgust on Sam’s face was crushing though, his lip drawn up as he stared down at the body. “Gabriel…” the acrid tone in his voice mirroring his expression perfectly before this image also faded out completely. 

Gabriel’s heart dropped out of his feet, he knew jumping to conclusions with his cousin was never a wise idea, but it was impossible to come up with any other explanation off the top of his head at the moment. Not only was Sam still mad at him, Sam hated Gabriel. He wanted to die all over again, cursing his dad for bringing him back to this, to more people who don’t want him around. He took a deep breath.

Dean had found it pretty prudent to keep his mouth shut for now, the questions kept piling up though. Dean knew it wasn’t safe to say anything at the moment, but watching Gabriel’s whole body sag, he could only guess at what he was thinking. Having Gabriel turn around and answer him out loud earlier had him worried about attempting to communicate through prayer again, all in all, avenues of clear communication had dried up. The broken look on Gabriel’s face confirmed Dean’s suspicions and Dean hoped there would be time later to clear things up, not really knowing how much help he would even be on that front. 

Both men looked back up toward the imposter Castiel to find he also had vanished. In his place was a gaunt figure, more skeletal than human, grey waxy looking skin stretched over the bones underneath, long glossy black hair hung down to the man’s shoulders tapering off just above a perfectly tailored black pin striped suit. 

“I had considered a fedora, but it seemed a bit, much.” The same razor sharp teeth appeared behind blackened lips, a lewd smile breaking over the man’s face, his voice deep and resonant, an accent barely distinguishable as he extended a hand to Dean formally. “Like my dear cousin said, I am the, what did you say? The essence of misery? Not quite as catchy. A man in New Orleans called me Krè Mizè, it has flair, no?” Dean scowled down at the nearly dessicated hand, watching it retract back into the man’s pocket with a casual sigh. The rotten dead breath crossing Dean’s nose, made him want to retch all over the man’s patent leather shoes. 

“It is simple boys, you have to find those you love most, simple enough yes?” Krè’s eyes scanned both faces before moving on, “As to where you will find them, all I will tell you is they are in the woods somewhere, lost. If I were you though,” he began to whisper as he leaned over toward Dean, his rancid breath making Dean queasy. “I’d go that way…” Krè pointed ahead of him, snaking his other arm around Dean’s shoulders. “Don’t worry, everything you need will be in the house. Look at the time, I need to go find my seat, have fun boys.” Dean didn’t have time to shrug the cold dead weight off his shoulders before the man was gone, leaving Gabriel and Dean alone. Gabriel just stared for a long moment, trying to regain some of his composure, before grinning up at Dean. 

“Family’s a bitch man. Am I right?”


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Dean continued behind Gabriel in silence as they started back toward Bobby’s house. He was having a difficult time turning off the part of his brain that was responsible for processing how he felt about any given situation. Turning off his emotions was one of the first and still most valuable lessons John had ever taught him. The countless number of lives he has been able to save alone due to his ability to compartmentalise has far outweighed the drama it has caused over the years. Dean didn’t want to analyze why having the archangel back was making him uncomfortable, but his brain seemed to be obsessing over it.

He didn’t like the fact that his brother wasn’t the first one to see Gabriel, like he had somehow done his brother wrong just by talking to the guy first. Dean hated the fact that none of this place made any sense so far and Gabriel, who seemed to have all the answers was just plodding along in silence, as if the hunter hadn’t even been there. Dean found the realization that he’d lost another friend that night just as disturbing as the idea that Cas had lost a brother, or that Sam had lost another shot at happiness this time. He hated the fact that looking at Gabriel now, made him think about how short life was, he knew he was going to die someday, hell, he was pretty impressed he’d made it this far and to be honest he was certain he was living on borrowed time by now. Cas’ cloudy eyes and pale face had been bombarding Dean’s mind since that night all the same, and his chest would start to grow tight, his breathing slightly more labored than normal. The thing that bothered him most though, the small sliver of hope that had wormed through his skull that made him look up toward the sky now for the other shoe to drop. 

It didn’t… but he did. Dean’s foot snagged on an average sized grey stone jutting out of the hill and he lost his composure. 

“So, couldn’t help but notice you’re not dead, wanna tell me how that happened? Or maybe we could start with your psychotic cousin; do you have any normal relatives by the way? Why is Bobby’s house now on the edge of Lake Manitoc? Shit, Lucas...wait, was that even Lucas? How the hell are we going to find the other two?” 

The questions kept coming out as Gabriel slowed down, cautiously entering the house; his eyes darting around, as if expecting to get jumped the second he walked back through the door. Something didn’t feel right inside, but then again, nothing in this place was right and Gabriel hoped he was just being jumpy, only partially paying attention to Dean’s fevered rampage behind him. He absolutely owed him an explanation, right now though, he couldn’t get past the stomach turning vision of Sam in the water. The miserable expression on Sam’s face was causing recurring excruciating tears in his gut until Gabriel was certain he was bleeding out on the inside. His eyes stung as they flooded, being thankful that Dean couldn’t see his face, forcing him to repress the memory for the moment. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if his own selfish sense of guilt got Sam hurt. 

Dean finally caught up to Gabriel, growing impatient as the archangel’s awkward silence stretched into the house. Dean could tell he was tense, and to be honest, Dean was as well. The smell in the house was unusually thick with sage, and something that wasn’t registering as familiar in his mind. Another big whiff told him that whatever it was, he didn’t like it. It seemed to settle in around him now that he noticed it, causing his nose to wrinkle. When Gabriel turned around to look at him back in the hallway, Dean could tell he could smell it as well. 

“That… is what wrong smells like. Is the kitchen this way?” He pointed through the living room and started walking, Dean following behind, not sure whether he should start yelling again or just wait and let Gabriel take his time. “Krè is family, it’s not important how, trust me, our family is less tree more orchard and it would take way more time than we have to explain how it works so we’re going to move on from that; just know there’s no love there whatsoever.” 

“Next thing you’ll tell me God has an aunt twice removed.” Dean let out an acerbic chuckle as he walked toward where Bobby kept spare knives, grabbing at a few of the hidden guns he knew had been stashed around the place. He was surprised to find they were all there, and fully loaded. 

“Well, for starters, we’re not at Bobby’s but I’m sure you’ve figured that much out at least. If you want to get technical, we’re literally hovering somewhere over Japan, about three feet off the ground actually.” The mildly amused tone in Gabriel’s voice at that fact made Dean nervous, even if he liked the guy, he learned to be wary about things Gabriel considered amusing or entertaining. “Those have silver, or iron bullets?” Gabriel nodded toward the gun in Dean’s hand, as he rifled through the cabinets for as much salt as he could get his hands on. 

“Both, what do we need?”

Dean slid the magazine out, double checking, pretty sure they were Iron, so the silver bullets would be in the one under the desk. He pulled open the drawer, grabbing a few small packs of ammo and shoving them in his pocket before walking back over to where Gabriel was; Dean tossed him one of the guns and a box of bullets. 

“Well bucko, we aren’t doing anything.” Dean hated the sound of this immediately, feeling his face go warm. “You, are going to wait here while I go find the other two.” Dean felt his chest swell and rapidly fill with air, his jaw going tight at the suggestion. 

“Are you kidding me? No way in hell are you going in there alone.”

“You don’t seem to understand Dean; this place, that forest out there, it’s a killer on a kind day. This is the type of place you are absolutely not equipped to handle, and trust me, I honestly don’t say that lightly. I know quite well what you and your brother are capable of, so zip up your pants, I left my ruler at home.” Gabriel turned back around, assuming the conversation was done, and rummaged through the rest of the cabinets for anything remotely useful, pausing momentarily to stock up on some holy water, unintentionally letting his mind wander toward Sam again. 

Dean however, was nowhere near finished. He grabbed Gabriel by the shoulders, whipping him back around to face him, getting ready to let the angel have it for assuming he was going to leave the safety of his family up to just one member. The frustration stopped dead in Dean’s throat as he studied Gabriel’s face, his eyes already bloodshot, the pupils darting around the room, searching for a neutral focus point. There was no usual grin, no mischievous light behind his eyes to make Dean nervous, which ironically scared the shit out of him. 

“How long?” Dean paused for a moment, not sure if there was a nice way to ask if Gabriel had been hiding from them. “How long… have you been…?” 

“Not dead? Just got back, thanks to dear old Dad, and before you ask, no. I don’t remember where or who he is. He deleted that little nugget when he sent me here.” 

Dean backed off and grabbed a few of the knives hiding in the kitchen, shoving one down in his boot, the other in his belt leaving the drawer open for Gabriel to take a grab at a few before they raided the fridge for food and left. There was no way he was going to let Gabriel go out there on his own, even if the guy did know what he was getting into. Now that he was back, Castiel would come back home, Sam would be happy, he’d have his family back again. That wouldn’t happen if Gabriel didn’t at the very least have backup in there. He’d been hunting long enough to know, those that go hunting solo, rarely ever came back, no matter how skilled they were. 

“Come on Dean, for once I am dead serious on this issue, you are not going with me.” Gabriel was getting aggravated at the hunter’s lack of acknowledgement on the subject. “I am not going to be responsible for you getting hurt or worse. I already have enough to feel guilty for without adding this to my already miles long list of offences.” 

Dean’s face was turning red, he understood an overdeveloped sense of guilt better than anyone, but so far, from everything he’d observed, going in there alone seemed like… 

“A suicide mission? It does, doesn’t it dear, and shame on you Gabriel. I was sure you had more sense than that; and before you ask, no, i’m not dead either.” Dean was afraid to turn around, he knew that voice, all woman and sass. There was only one woman in all of history who would talk to an archangel like a scolding mother. 

“Missouri?” Dean looked at Gabriel before twisting around to see the one and only Missouri Mosely, well sort of. She was transparent, her legs disappearing through the floor. “Well, that’s a new one.” Dean’s eyebrows creased looking the ghostly woman up and down before looking over to Gabriel. 

“Three feet off the ground huh? So, I assume you’re the ghost of christmas past?” Gabriel snickered at Dean’s frustration, the sarcasm just rolling off his tongue now. He felt a bit bad for him at the moment, but Gabriel had noticed over a few stakeouts with the guy that the more peeved Dean got, the funnier he became. There was at least one night he could remember waiting in the Impala for the all clear from Sam; Dean had him in tears by the time Castiel showed up in the back of the car, instantly confused. He had been teasing the man about his crush on the wide-eyed angel, watching his face turn an unnatural shade of red as he glanced in the rearview mirror at the back seat. Gabriel brought him a case of beer the next day and never brought it up again out of respect; Dean had nodded, grunting his approval. He sighed, knowing that conversation could be a real possibility soon, that would be one of the easier ones, he assumed.

“Dean, just because we are on different planes of existence, don’t think I won’t smack you boy.” She turned to Gabriel, floating over toward him, a sympathetic smile on her face making him glance around warily. 

“Look lady, I don’t know who you are, or how you got here, but you need to leave before the resident psycho gets wind you’re here.” Somehow, Gabriel knew that had been the exact wrong thing to say because the woman stiffened up and glowered at him as Dean winced, making a drawn in hissing noise as he stepped back. He became surprised at how badly he wanted to shrink under her dominating voice, Dad had definitely broken the mold with this one.

“You let me worry about myself boy, I’m here to help you, at your father’s request,” an eyebrow raised toward Gabriel accusingly, “but we gotta hurry, this spell only lasts so long, even with God’s help.” Dean walked over toward Gabriel, feeling relief and a bit of amusement, Missouri’s attitude was entertaining to say the least, but it was far more enjoyable when you weren’t the one under the evil eye. The giggle died in his throat as she turned toward him, 

“You, top drawer in Bobby’s desk, now.”

Dean muttered out a ‘yes ma’am’ as he hurried over to where he had previously grabbed the bullets, “Can one of you please explain what is going on here?”

“What do you think i’m here for dear? Look to put it plainly, you are in a pocket of reality, almost exactly like where we are.”

Gabriel interrupted the now shocked woman, wondering if she would let him survive long enough to regret that. “When dear old dad was creating this universe, he had a few practise runs with some places, this is one of those places. The finalized version you know as Aokigahara forest is only three feet, and one encapsulated universe below us. So close, yet so far.” He stopped talking when Missouri’s eyes darted over toward him, not with the stern look she had before, her face had softened, the light in her eyes wavering slightly as she looked straight into him. The intrusion made Gabriel squirm, he knew when he was being read, the empathy pouring out of her throwing him off. 

“You’re looking for an envelope labeled Maps, it was a pain trying to transport it over here, but we managed. Just in time too it seems.” Dean pulled the envelope out and held it up as Missouri looked over, a satisfied grin on her face. “Now, as to this nonsense. Dean, you need to talk to this poor boy, straighten him out before you go any further.” Then she turned to Gabriel, “and you two are going to need each other if you are going to survive,” seeing her message wasn’t getting through, she wafted over to him speaking more softly, her face showing genuine concern and honesty. “If you go out there alone, Sam will get stuck here, and you won’t.” The vision made Gabriel run cold, he could feel his veins ice over, seeing Sam’s lifeless body swinging, forgotten and pale in his mind’s eye. 

“This is not your typical forest, Dad created this one to magnify a person’s mind so to speak. It started out as an attempt at natural therapy, don’t even ask.” Gabriel put his hands up and shook his head slightly remembering the insane holistic phase he had been going through. “There were several versions, this one, had been his attempt at what he wanted to call confrontational therapy.” 

Gabriel shifted uncomfortably, recounting for Dean how horrified his father and brothers had all been when they found a mass of bodies; Gabriel’s eyes glazed over as he continued his story; some were swinging from branches, others covered in blood, sharp blades littering the ground around them all. “They never had a chance.” Quite a few had been there for what looked like centuries, leaving only cloth covered bones slumped at the roots, and in some cases, only trinkets remained scattered around the mossy uneven ground. A grim reminder that someone once was, and then just as quickly, wasn’t.   
“This place is crawling with ghosts Dean-o, and I can promise you haven’t seen anything like this. Salt and iron aren’t going to save us from everything they can do. See, the souls got trapped here, no bodies, no way to send them elsewhere, they went mad. That isn’t even the worst part” Gabriel’s eyes darkened as he continued to speak, his voice frighteningly acidic. “See, they became a part of this forest. This living, breathing, feeling, thinking, psychic forest became too dangerous, so we all ripped it out of existence, storing it in the attic, he gestured around himself. Krè found it and has since made it one of his little vacation spots.” Gabriel grew silent, staring at nothing as Dean turned back toward Missouri, growing more horrified as he processed the story he’d just been told. “So, what’s the map for?”

“Ah, must be my turn to talk then. One of your brothers came along after a few years, and poked a hole in the middle of the forest connecting the two realities, only the living can pass through so don’t worry about anything getting out. The location is marked on that map, as well as the locations of both boys.” Dean pulled the sturdy feeling paper out of the envelope, unfolding it and watching as three red dots popped up on top of what looked like topographical lines. Two were labeled with Castiel and Sam’s names and thankfully they didn’t seem to be too far from each other, the third dot labeled exit however was a good distance beyond them.

“Whatever you do, stay together and remember, you cannot trust this beast.” Missouri turned to look straight at Gabriel, Dean staring straight through her from the opposite end, “When you find your family, you go straight to that cabin, look under the floorboard, the door is there. I shouldn’t have to tell you not to let him see that…” she gestured toward the map, “and you boys come find me when you’re back. It’s been too long.” With that, Missouri faded out, leaving Dean and Gabriel alone in the too empty house. 

Dean looked down at the map, watching as two more dots appeared with their own names in a corner of it. He was at least grateful that the other two were not nearly as far off, but he was starting to worry they wouldn’t make it to the cabin before something happened. Taking a deep breath and steadying his nerves, Dean spoke up, keeping Missouri’s first commandment, 

“Sam’s been a wreck since… he hasn’t eaten in days, mostly cause it helps him stay drunk.” He didn’t look up, but he knew he had Gabriel’s full attention now. “I’m not completely blind you know. You think I blame myself for what happened to you,” he huffed out a laugh, “ Whatever that was that you thought you saw, I can guarantee you have it wrong. Now, enough with the chick flick moments, let’s go get our family back.” With that Dean looked up, his eyebrows raised, indicating that for now at least, the discussion was closed. He tossed the map at Gabriel, grabbed the bag they had stuffed all their gear in and nodded toward the door.   
“If anything has happened to my car, we’re coming back here and killing this bastard.” With that, the two walked out the door and toward the direction on the map indicating Castiel’s location


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5  
The trees never grew back in this place, nothing would ever grow here again, it was now a completely useless patch of dirt. Castiel briefly wondered if that’s why this place felt like the closest thing to home right now, his nose twitched at the faintest smell of sulfur still coming up from the ground he had barreled into at light speed. Clips and still frames of Castiel pulling Dean out of hell flashed in front of his closed eyelids, his heart racing at the memory. He sat in the dead center of the spot, the trees having long since been cleared, that day would go down in local history as the freak twister of ‘08. 

Cas breathed in and it still hurt, his heart was on the verge of collapsing in on him, he was useless again. When Gabriel had decided to join them, Castiel was relieved, and not just because he had his brother back. They finally had someone that Zachariah was afraid of, as long as Gabriel was on their side, Zachariah would bide his time on the sidelines. He had been begging whatever was left in the universe that could hear him for some sort of help, desperately trying to keep his panic in check. Castiel’s long list of failures played around in his mind, every instance of weakness a thrust into his gut as he felt his stomach turn and twist into a knot. He was trembling now and would have gladly blamed it on the cold night air, if he wasn’t absolutely certain that their last hope was now gone. He had no way to protect those closest to him, and it felt like a slow starvation inside. 

Castiel’s mind halted the chaos immediately when he felt the wind change course. The air around him created a strange static electricity that seemed intent on burrowing into his brain. A deafening crack reverberated in his head, the ground beneath him shifted and he was terrified to open his eyes. 

“Hello, Castiel.” a smug nasally voice came from behind him. 

Castiel’s eyes snapped open, seeing only blackness around him now. Small white lights burned thousands of miles away, the moon nowhere to be seen while a small insect in the base of his skull began asking some very annoying questions, Where was the planet? Why were they in space? Why could he walk on solid ground? One by one, he swatted them away, deeming them insignificant in the grand scheme of things. 

“Zachariah,” Castiel stiffened his posture, a sneer crossing his lip as he glared at the other man. “What is going on, where have you taken me?” Castiel had infinite patience, though he thought to himself that this might prove to be a rare exception, waiting for a response with an unusual amount of nervousness. 

“I haven’t moved you, in fact, you haven’t moved either. Not for a week at least.” Castiel stumbled back looking around into the darkness, the open space confusing his senses. His face felt warm, his breathing became more labored, the darkness surrounding his vision felt like it was hemming him in. “Not that it took us that long to break Dean.” The emphasis on the word that caused Castiel’s stomach to sour and clench, longing to relieve its contents. 

“That’s not possible, Dean would never… I would have heard him praying for me.” Castiel searched Zachariah’s face for any sign he was lying, his mouth drawing in tighter the longer he went finding nothing. “I know Dean Winchester, he would have called for my help, in fact, he would have died before saying yes to Michael. Now tell me the truth.” Castiel glared, trying his best to look threatening, hoping Zachariah couldn’t see how rattled he was. 

“We had… ways of keeping his mouth shut.” Castiel wanted to lurch forward at that but Zachariah was quick to continue, “Sam was so helpful in getting his brother to say yes, I didn’t much care for the screaming though. It might have taken less time if he hadn’t escaped, but that abomination,” Zachariah paused for a moment, looking like he disgusted at the mere thought of Sam’s existence. “Well, revenge is a great motivator anyway.” 

Castiel’s vision blurred, his eyes hot and stinging, red bordering everything he looked at and he charged. The air rushing past him wafted a mossy odor up his nose prompting the tiny bug to speak up again. Is this what space smells like? His momentum was abruptly ended just inches from Zachariah’s face, Castiel barred his teeth, face twisted in pain and rage at the indignity of not being able to kill the bastard. He knew Zachariah didn’t have the strength to hold him back this easily, the tight grip binding his arms and legs stiffly together starting to burn his skin like rope. 

“Michael. If you let me go, I swear to the father himself I will kill you with my bare hands. Then I’m gonna rip you apart.” His head gesturing toward Zachariah. 

“I don’t think so little brother.” The voice made Castiel’s heart shatter to pieces. He began to tremble, a sick sweat breaking out all over his body. Against his will, he was turned around, his eyes determined to focus on anything other than Dean’s face. Castiel couldn’t help but observe him out of the corner of his vision though, desperate to get what he was certain was his last look at the person he cared for most. 

“You know, I promised I wouldn’t turn him into a drooling mess like my brothers. I might have miscalculated just a bit.” Everything else Michael was saying after that didn’t even register with Castiel, the small glance he afforded his gaze had become a long last desperate stare. He noticed how the blond hair was tousled, blood covering Deans face and shirt, none of it looking like his. Dark purple bruises around his neck caused his eyes to well up, and felt his grace instinctively reaching out toward the injury. He knew the instant Michael saw it, a sickeningly saccharine grin crossing his face. “Old habits die hard I guess,” 

That feels nothing like Dean, I know his muscles. Whose bones are these? The questions in his mind starting to grow in volume as more and more refused to make sense to him. Michael floated forward toward Castiel, his head tilted to the side. There was a mocking pity in his voice Castiel found wounded him deeper, hearing Dean’s vocal cords produce such a hateful sound. “What’s wrong Castiel? You couldn’t have possibly believed you would succeed. It was fated to happen, you know better than anyone, you can’t go against the will of the father. I’m actually rather disappointed that you even tried.” 

Castiel hung his head low, now openly weeping at the unbearable loss of it all. 

 

Sickly pale light thrust itself through the few breaks in the low canopy above Dean’s head. The moss covered rocks appeared toxic where the light landed prompting Dean to tread more carefully. What little light actually existed in this place had been going down for the past half an hour now. A bitter gust of wind blew up Dean’s back nipping at his irritatingly cold shoulders, his jacket was back in the damn hotel. his lips drew together tightly as he remembered slinging the jacket on his bed before grabbing his dinner. 

“I’m starting to understand why you skip family reunions.” Dean muttered toward Gabriel only a few paces in front. The area around them was noiseless and in all Dean’s life, that had been his most unnerving first. He was desperate to break the silence, he’d had way too much of it lately. Gabriel however hadn’t said a word to him since they left the house. He was surprisingly worried he still hadn’t gotten the message across with the tension Gabriel had been holding in his shoulders. 

“Hey what are those things?”

“What things?” Gabriel’s response was sharp, wound tight in his throat glancing back in Dean’s direction. There were dark bags under his eyes now, making Dean suddenly feel the fatigue that dug into his muscles. 

Gabriel searched in the direction of where Dean had pointed, noticing pitch black ema’s hung scattered throughout the trees. They were scribbled on in an anemic light that never seemed to fade, clinging to the placard in desperation. The closest one to Gabriel and Dean flickered as they walked past, drawing Dean’s attention for a moment. The pallid blue light seemed to catch his pulse, throbbing with every beat of his heart, every pulse getting brighter as it went.

“No no, don’t touch that.” Dean felt a hand on his arm in a moment, swatting it away from the tree, the ema just shy of his fingertips. “ Watashi wa kono basho de hitori de shinu tame ni, tenshi ni yotte michibika remashita...I was led here, to die alone in this place… well, more or less.” Dean was shocked at how quickly his attention had gotten sucked in, now much more worried about the journey ahead. 

Trying to hide the growing concern in his eyes, Dean attempted to feel slightly more relieved that they were getting closer to Castiel, they should be coming up on him in a few hours at the clip they’d been walking. Satisfied that he’d put himself back in check, he glanced back up at Gabriel, now sitting on a mossy covered stone, his eyes focused on the ground. Gabriel had been having enough trouble without having to worry about another Winchester and if there was anything Dean was an expert at, it was stuffing his feelings down for family. 

“Look, before we get any further in here….” before Gabriel could finish that sentence, someone behind him caught Dean’s attention. A woman floated just above Gabriel’s head, the mist that she was made of swirling grays and reds lapped around her feet like flame, curling into black smoke. Dean’s eyes were drawn upward as Gabriel turned around and jumped back, hand already rummaging around in the green duffle bag he’d been lugging with him. A beautiful black kimono flowed around making the bright red pattern appear to almost ooze down toward the blackened mist. Her face was covered with oil black hair, her pale white skin and blood red lips peeking through where the hair had parted allowing him to see the grim smile on her face. The woman’s eyes went wide for a moment before she vanished in a violent fit of laughter. Gabriel watched the woman curl outward and disappear like wafting fog as a tall figure dressed in a white suit stepped out from where she had just been.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Gabriel knew in an instant what this was and went back to rummaging around for the salt and the pistol, both of which were frustratingly at the bottom of the bag. “I have no idea why he’s dressed in white, but don’t listen to her. Just give me a minute”. Dean let out a tense growl, causing Gabriel to stop momentarily and look up, completely confused now. 

“Dean, hey. Dean!” Gabriel grabbed the other man by the shoulders, facing him away from the advancing entity. “Look at me, that’s not real. Don’t listen to anything it says. That’s not Sam, I need you to absolutely believe that.” For a brief moment Dean wanted to take a swing at the shorter man, the urgency in Gabriel’s voice gave him pause though. 

“Come on, you know this is how it’s going to end. There’s no way you could have protected me, or saved me for that matter.” Gabriel felt icy cold surround his arms, digging down to his bones in an attempt to freeze his blood. He should have known better than to assume the gun would stay at the top of the bag and he could tell Dean was already halfway gone. If they were going to get through this, Gabriel was going to have to get over his growing rage at Krè and talk to Dean. His hand wrapped around a long strip of white paper, instantly recognising the writing as he pulled it out of the bag, he’d have to worry about the gun later. “You know you were always the weak link in the family.” Gabriel could feel Dean tense up at the phrase, noting to himself how uncomfortable it made him to hear Sam’s voice say something that harsh to his own brother. He looked down at the faded strip of paper in his hand, the markings on the face barely decipherable in the dimming light. As Dean kept staring at his brother in abject horror, completely lost to the illusion, Gabriel scanned the horizon and found the glowing ema Dean had been drawn toward turning his back on the scene for just a moment. “Do you honestly think I enjoyed having you hover at my side for a millenia? Stop lying to yourself, you didn’t leave, you weren’t…” the creature didn’t even get the last word out before it screamed and evaporated, a blue flame lapping at its feet. 

Dean saw the light on the ema steady and grow dim again, the paper, now unmarked fluttered to the ground at Gabriel’s feet. The archangel sighed and went back over to the pack, looking slightly relieved when he managed to pull out a large container of salt. “You know I think Bobby used to have a whole box of those in the basement. An old friend of his was a shinto priest Bobby helped with a cursed comb years back.” Dean remarked casually.

“I’ll send a thank you letter to the boy scouts of america.” Gabriel tossed another container of salt at him, “Help me out here for a second, we need to have a chat apparently.” It was safe to say the previous scene left more than a few questions running around in Gabriel’s head. He indicated a wide circle and they both started pouring in silence. 

Dean found a large moss covered rock near the center of the circle, feeling far less safe looking at the surrounding trees, all of them with the same type of black wooden planks scrawled on in all different languages in the same sickly glowing light. Gabriel sat down across from him, a loud breath escaping his throat.  
“So, was that Krè? What the hell does he want with us?” Dean could feel the adrenaline surging through his system with the encounter and he tried to calm the rush. Gabriel was halfway into the army green duffle bag, quietly rambling off curse words in languages Dean had never heard for a few minutes before shouting triumphantly, pulling out two pistols, loaded with iron bullets and tossed one over to his counterpart.

“ I’m pretty sure you can answer this one for me first. What the hell was Sammy wearing?” Dean noticed the warm tone in Gabriel’s voice as he spoke his brother’s name, tucking the information away for now. “That is what Sam looks like… according to the future anyways. When he says yes to Lucifer. I got mojo’d to the future by our buddy Zachariah a while back.” The memory flashed in his mind and light from the surrounding ema’s began to glow, slowly forming around the circle almost like a projector, showing Dean and Gabriel the memory. Future Cas’ face revolved around him, the vision glowing and rippling like a tall cylinder of water; It would have been beautiful had it not been incredibly painful to watch. Gabriel’s whole body was wound tight by the end of Dean’s story, watching it play out around them. Gabriel was enraged, watching Sam murder his brother without even flinching. He’d made it look so easy. “Fucking Zachariah, he’s had his nose so far up Michael’s ass he could tell you the last thing the guy ate! I’m going to rip out his grace myself for this,” he looked Dean in the eye now, his tone straight and almost matter of fact,” First off, that’s not going to happen to Sam. I can assure you of that, Zachariah should have known better, the future is too unpredictable, even with world ending prophecies. This could still go at least a million ways, and thanks to you and your brother, and me if we make it out of here alive, not all of them are bad.” 

Dean watched as the images around him changed, this time Sam’s face wavered onto the rotating spirit screen, still unsure of what this was really all about. “So, this…” he pointed around, “I’m guessing it’s the same stuff as the weird floating mist lady?” Gabriel nodded, his eyes never leaving Sam’s face. Dean could see the man’s chest move more rapidly, the glow in his eyes fading just slightly as they tracked the contorted look, Gabriel’s face began to mirror the expression. Dean shifted his legs on his rock, his backside was slowly growing more numb and he began to regret choosing a spot that was far less comfortable than the moss had led him to believe. The reluctance to speak stretched on as the scene played out silently in front of them. Gabriel’s projected face on the screen wore a hateful sneer, as Dean watched his brother back away. It looked like Gabriel was just spitting words at Sam before holding his hand up, Dean didn’t need to hear the sound to know that he’d snapped his fingers. 

“That was the last time we spoke.” Gabriel’s voice cracked, the scene between the two viciously playing out in a loop around them. Dean wasn’t exactly sure where to look, at this point all of it was making him pretty uncomfortable. The more he saw Sam’s pained reaction to Gabriel’s venom, the more upset Dean became with Gabriel. He hadn’t said anything since the half-hearted explanation, and he still had no idea what any of this had to do with the forest or Krè, or Cas.   
Somewhere to his left, Castiel’s face floated forward, hovering just outside the barrier that had been supposed to keep them safe. It was just his face, floating in and out of the darkness surrounding them, covered in scars and bruises. The white transparent face was beginning to open it’s mouth to speak. Dean just watched in horror, his stomach winding in knots, waiting for the verbal assault like Gabriel had gotten with ghost Sam. A large shot rang out before that could happen though, Dean grabbed his left ear, yelling as he looked over at the shooter, ready to tear him apart. “What the fu… ? Are you trying to kill… “ The sentence died in his throat, and he looked back to where the floating face had been. A poof and a small bullet hole shape right next to his head had gone back to pitch black again. He had expected to see the mist close over the bullet hole for some reason, but it didn’t. The small black circle hung in midair like a busted pixel causing him to reach out and stick his finger right through. The cold air around his hand began to move up his arm, sinking into his skin, dragging a feeling of loneliness and despair behind it. Lisa’s face popped up in his head, he had always meant to go back, but then Cas had showed up. Dean had dropped his arm and the cold died slowly, but the faces kept popping up, Cassie, Layla, Jo… CRACK!

“Dean, could you try not thinking about all your exes please.” CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! Dean looked over just in time to see Cas’s face disappear, again. Dean was currently glad it was dark, because his cheeks were bright red as Gabriel looked at him. In a mean attempt to change the subject Dean straightened up and looked over at Gabriel, currently loading more ammo into his clip. 

“So, you and Sam’s little blow up, care to explain that or are you going to leave me in the dark about everything?” The last comment made Gabriel’s head snap up but instead of the usual annoyance and indignation, Dean saw wide, watery eyes and a tightly drawn mouth. 

“I’m not saying this to make you squirm, I know you hate chick flick shit, but that’s what this place was designed to do. It forces you to confront things that make you miserable and afraid; everything you don’t want to think about gets paraded around in front of you relentlessly. We both need to confront a few things before we go any further though, so the less you fight this crap, the better.” Gabriel was barely holding it together, Dean had only seen this one other time. He waited for Gabriel to pause, 

“After the warehouse in Ohio, I thought it was weird you weren’t coming around anymore. Sam was miserable then too,” Dean sighed, remembering waking up in another cheap motel a few nights later. “ But you knew that, didn’t you.Dean let the question hang between them as the scene around them flickered again. This time the motel room he was just remembering popped up, Dean’s vision glancing up to see Gabriel, the same watery broken eyes staring at him before vanishing without a word. “I’m gonna guess Sam didn’t know?” Gabriel shook his head, his face up, but still refusing to look Dean in the eye. “I fucked up, Dean… I met you guys and originally you both pissed me off, thinking you could succeed where I’d failed. I tried everything I could think of to keep my brothers from fighting. Lucifer was my best friend at one time you know.” Dean shifted again, reaching for the bag to grab the lantern that had been packed away. It had become too dark to see, and as uncomfortable as he was with Gabriel now crying in front of him, he’d rather have light.

“I mean, before he and Michael decided to throw down, Luci was… ” he paused, his brows knit together as he tried to find the best way to express what he needed to get across to Dean. He knew how protective Dean was of his brother, and he knew he needed to get his own issues out now, or he’d be no help to Sam, or Cas but damn if this wasn’t painful. “A lot like Sammy,”

Somewhere from the darkness, a deep laugh reverberated through the forest for an instant, sending a shiver through them. Gabriel could almost see the mirthful expression on Krè’s hollow face, the pearlescent thread dancing around in the bastard’s eyes. He’d never figure out how God’s sister managed to make something so unlike the grace his father had given him. Gabriel shuddered as he continued his story, avoiding Dean’s earnestly concerned expression, now fully illuminated and expectantly focused on Gabriel. He was using the same look of concern Gabriel had seen him use on particularly personal cases. 

“I mean, he was smart, and funny… he was always trying to look at things from a different angle. Lucifer’s ego was what really screwed him over, a trait that thankfully Sam doesn’t share.” This time Gabriel looked Dean in the eyes, “ After Florida, I made a deal with Sam, ya know, I had to prove to him that you can’t change fate. That’s how it started out at least, I figured if I just showed your brother how pointless it was to fight… not one of my brightest ideas i’ll admit. I assumed he’d just wanted to save his own skin, or at the most, was trying to save you.” Gabriel let out a bitter laugh, ashamed at how much he’d sounded like Michael back then. “I’d had it all planned out, take him to random places in time that are set in stone,” Dean interjected, “Try to prove that you can’t change fate right? Yeah, I could have told you that was pointless.” he laughed, glad for the small amount of relief. Sam realized, growing up, that his height was intimidating to quite a few people. In response, he’d worked hard to make himself seem meek and unassuming, but it always amused Dean when people underestimated the giant man. 

Gabriel chuckled, watching clipped visions of himself and the moose running out of a building, a massive fire raging behind them lighting up the whole of London, where everything crashed around him. “I’ll admit, I had grown fond of gigantor by the time we rescued that family in London. They were supposed to die in the Great fire… “ Gabriel trailed off momentarily, his eyes glazed over at the memory revolving around him. “Your brother is the most infuriating man I have ever met in my life, do you know that? He’s actually selfless, to a fault. I have never seen someone so devoted to the idea of self destruction in service of others before.” A young woman’s face appeared briefly, covered in ash, her brown eyes wide with panic as she gripped onto Sam’s shirt like it was a life raft. Her dress in rags and tears streaking down her face, Sam gently swooped his arm down and picked her up, quickening the pace as he looked over his shoulder at the small boy hitching a piggyback ride, his tiny hands gripping tighter around Sam’s neck. 

Dean watched the scene unfold around him, not surprised when he started to run back toward the burning building, the two having been safely placed on a cart headed out of town. “He went back in three other times before I had to drag his body out. He managed to save five more people that night.” Dean shifted around again, “let me guess, it wasn’t enough.”

Gabriel smiled as he looked down. “I’m lucky he doesn’t blame himself for the whole fire.” 

Dean watched as he saw Gabriel’s face rotating around him again, staring at Sam with a look of concern before disappearing. “I was wrong.” Gabriel whispered adding after a moment, “I never expected he’d prove me wrong, let alone make me want to help.” Gabriel sighed, bracing himself for the wash of pain to follow his next admission. He looked Dean straight in the face, his eyes starting to sting. “I fucked up, Dean. I fell in love with your giant of a brother, and now I need to fix this…” He pointed back at the wall, realizing the light had grown dimmer the more Gabriel spoke. Gabriel’s angry face revolved around the screen again as he watched him mouth something at Sammy. “Oh, God, Sam…” Gabriel hung his head in his hands as the last of the sickly blue light died out around them.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7  
Dean unfolded the map for the millionth time listening to Gabriel talk. Watching Castiel’s spot on the map move around somehow made him feel a little better. He knew they weren’t far, but he was worried about what the forest was going to throw at them next. From Gabriel’s explanation of the place and recent experience, this was one nightmare after another. He looked over at the red spot labeled Sam, slowly walking around in the same circle and felt a pang in his chest. He still had so many questions, but the strain surrounding them made it harder to talk. In this place though, it seemed like his usual stuff it down routine just wouldn’t happen. “So, how did all these get here?” He pointed around to the faintly glowing emes surrounding him. 

Gabriel seemed to slump a little as he exhaled before looking at Dean, “Remember earlier when Krè said one of my brothers popped a hole in this place? That wasn’t all Luci did..” Gabriel trailed off, distracted by movement somewhere above him. Dean’s head tilted, his ears straining to hear what he assumed Gabriel could probably see in this near pitch black. His eyes were drawn back to the subtle blue glow emanating from the surrounding trees, the light never seemed to spread far from it’s resting place inside the curves and swoops, symbols and pictures carved just behind them spread out as far as he could see. For as mesmerising as the sight was, he couldn’t bring himself to call it beautiful in any regard. Something in Dean’s gut couldn’t allow him to acknowledge it that way, dreading Gabriel’s answer to the question. He looked back down at the map, Castiel stopped moving, causing his already agitated gut to clench slightly. 

Gabriel leaned down, grabbing the remainder of the gear they had brought with them and stuffed it into his bag before double checking his clip and pocketing a couple boxes of bullets. “He found a way to lure people in here, no one was meant to go in here alone… no one. He knew that…” Dean followed Gabriel’s lead, checking his gun and grabbing a box of bullets for himself before looking back up toward the light rustling above him, his muscles growing tighter as he strained to see what was causing the noise. From above the both of them, the silence was broken by the sound of Gabriel’s voice, angry and clearly shaken. Dean looked back down to Gabriel, confirming that it wasn’t actually the man sitting across from him. Gabriel was turning white as the two voices argued, the despair in his voice growing as the other, currently unrecognizable snapped back with a very familiar tone. Then why did you bring me here? Where did all these… come from? Gabriel’s mimicked voice was distant, but distinct, and Dean felt like he was intruding. He resisted the urge to clamp his hands down over his ears, opting instead to thread his fingers together behind his head, pulling his elbows around toward his temples. 

Gabriel was starting to believe Jud Crandall’s words of wisdom as he recalled every painful moment of that conversation. “To this day, I don’t know why he’d show me all this. I never hated people, I mean granted I haven’t always agreed with dear old dad either. I mean, I may not have always been team human, but I always loved watching dad create.” His voice trailed off, a small bitter smile spread across his mouth as visions of nature in its infancy ran through his mind. “Dad was always excited when he showed us something new. Like it was the greatest thing he’d ever done. It’s not like he ever ran out of love for those things, he just loved the process of creating more than the actual product. Ever the artist.” Gabriel huffed, barely remembering the earlier conversation with his father, angry that he couldn’t remember his father’s new face. “In the end, I guess Lucifer just got tired of feeling like the errand boy.” The argument around them grew to a fever pitch, Lucifer’s words striking Gabriel all over again 

Thought you’d be on my side in this… 

Are you kidding me? Lucifer, all these… they were Dad’s… 

The voice faded in and out as Gabriel winced at the words. Sam and to some extent Dean had finally managed to get through to him where his father had failed. “So, I really hate to ask this, but, if you didn’t agree with Lucifer, why not side with Michael? Why run away?” Dean was trying his best to sound steady, but the noises around him were starting to make his skin crawl. Mimicry was not exactly one of his favorite things to deal with and this was just too much. Dean hated moments like this, it wasn’t the emotion that made him uncomfortable, it was having to live through someone else's pain and shame, especially a friend’s. 

“At the time, I told myself it was because Michael was such a stick in the mud. Now… he was following Dad’s orders, but he never got it either. Those two were like oil and water, thing is, at the end of the day, they're still both liquid.” Gabriel looked down and took a breath before continuing. “ Kodama, sort of.” Gabriel handed Dean a flashlight and pointed up, as Dean pointed the flashlight toward the rustling leaves and dying argument. Sets of numerous wide eyes leered down at him from the trees, attached to what looked like stark white masks poorly imitating a skull. 

“So what makes these different from regular tree spirits?” Dean cocked his gun and aimed for the nearest face, glancing at Gabriel, now watching with great interest as he fired into the trees, hitting his mark and watching it vaporise back into the same mist as before, the others scuttling out of the light and toward safety. 

“You asked about the eme’s, wanted to know what they were?” He stood up and stepped outside the circle, taking the lantern that had been in the center with him toward the nearest tree, CRACK! A misty image of Sam vanished before it could say a word, Dean stuffed the map in his back pocket and followed Gabriel, flashlight and gun in hand. He knew Gabriel wasn’t walking far, hell, he probably wasn’t expecting Dean to follow, but right now, Gabriel needed to know that someone had his back more than Dean needed to feel safe. 

Gabriel stopped at the nearest tree, the ema on it glowing bright as they got close enough to read the lettering, it was in German this time. “Mein Blut ist unrein, Sie können t ändern sie ihr Blut… My blood is unclean, you can’t change your blood.” He walked over to another one, his stride agitated and uneven over the rocks and tree roots yet setting a very determined pace as he noted the writing on the next ema, this one in english. 

I… I lost it all. There’s no coming back from that. 

“They’re all the same, every one of them. This is what killed them, the reason they couldn’t go on anymore. Like a fucked up epitaph.” Gabriel’s voice was growing more bitter as he spoke, finally turning back toward Dean, “ So, all these things are from people who died here? On all these trees… Jesus…” Gabriel’s eyes clenched shut as he shook his head, his jaw quivered slightly as he ground down on his molars. “Not exactly, this place wasn’t a forest when Dad made it originally. In fact, there were no trees here at all.” Mist began to swirl around them, forming a dark approximation of Gabriel and another man, tall and lean, dark skinned with peircing eyes and a familiar smile hiding behind a large boulder, watching another person appear out of the fog. 

She was young, couldn’t have been much older than fourteen or fifteen by Dean’s estimations, wearing a beautiful blue dress Dean couldn’t have placed. She had been crying for a while, her nose and eyes red and irritated as she wandered around looking terrified and exhausted. He looked back over to the real Gabriel, “Who is that?” 

Gabriel looked like he was about to leap out of his skin toward the poor girl, “Her name was Emmaline.” was all he could manage to get out before his counterpart began to open his mouth wide, growing enraged when no sound came out. “He wouldn’t let me move, made me watch as she… after this, I left.” The girl was taking deep breaths as she climbed onto a nearby tree stump and hopped, her arms shooting up over her head a few times before she seemed satisfied. After a few minutes watching her walk around the tree and crouching down near the base for a moment. She stopped, seeming to consider the words on the tree in front of her before climbing back up to the stump and taking a deep breath. Dean knew what was going on by this point and instinct kicked in, he ran toward the girl as she looked up, seeming to stare straight through Dean snapping him back to the strange current reality. 

Her eyes were already lifeless, even with a fresh wave of tears flowing down her ruddy cheeks. Her long dark hair curled around her face as she slipped the invisible rope over her head, she shook her shoulders slightly, trying to brace herself before she jumped. For a while those lifeless blue eyes stared down at him, sneaking quick peaks between the pendulum of dark hair covering her face. Slowly the mist making up the girls feet began to siphon itself down toward the earth, sinking into the ground as it went. The false Gabriel behind him let out a horrified moan as he was finally allowed to move again, racing toward the spot where Emmaline was being sucked into the ground. Dean wanted to vomit as he saw something sprout up from the earth and shoot toward the darkened sky. It stretched toward the canopy quickly before stopping abruptly with a groan morphing from a pained girls scream to splintering wood. Slowly, a faint blue glow emanated from inside the tree and began to swirl and swoop around in the center before settling down and steadying. 

Dean was reluctantly making the short walk over toward the tree, over toward Emmaline. “Don’t bother, I can tell you what it says… My child and I are damned anyway… that one I memorised.” Dean grabbed the map out of his back pocket, currently dying for any form of relief from the disgusting revelation, and started to panic. “Hey, Gabriel… Cas isn’t moving.”


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8  
Sam hovered over Gabriel’s lifeless body, waiting. He squinted his eyes closed once more, his chest falling when he didn’t wake up on the cold tile floor, hungover. The rest of the elysian fields had long since vanished, leaving Sam alone in the middle of a dark forest he had never been to before. The whole area gave him a strange sense of remembrance, though he couldn’t place where he’d seen anything like this. The faint blue glow emanating from the trees barely lit up the strange mist pooling around his feet; Sam didn’t even notice, his eyes roamed from Gabriel’s relaxed face to the gaping wound in his chest, yet never left Gabriel’s body. The longer Sam waited, the colder his skin became, as if the surrounding air was coaxing the body heat right out of him, and he began to shiver. The strain on his muscles started to burn deep as he continued to stand there and wait, the dread that twisted up in his stomach made him want to vomit. 

“He’s not coming, and you know why.” a familiar voice seemed to surround him in the darkness, forcing him to look up, unsure of where exactly it was coming from. Sam could see the mist in the distance being agitated, swirling around a pair of transparent boots making their way toward him. As the boots made their way past another group of trees, the light coming off of them seemed to float down toward the ground, attaching a pair of legs to the slowly approaching shoes. 

“I don’t know why you expect this to be a dream Sam, are you ever that lucky?” The legs slowly became a shredded torso underneath a grey jacket, the ends of Jo’s blonde hair still wet and red. Sam wanted to run and hide, his legs however, decided to ignore the message, instead deciding Sam meant look back down at Gabriel again. Something desperate in him thought the angel’s face would somehow bring him some kind of comfort, but his body was gone, not a trace left behind.   
When he looked back up, Jo was standing a few feet in front of him, growing more solid by the moment making Sam uneasy. The skin that wasn’t blood-stained, looked waxy and grey, his own attempting retreat as he finally looked her in the eye. They were hollow and oppressive, Sam noticed something almost white and thread-like swimming around in the pitch making his eyes dart hopelessly back toward the ground. 

“Where, am I?” Sam’s voice was softer than usual, prominently displaying the guilt resting there. If this wasn’t a dream, then he had to find a way out and, “Where’s Dean?” 

Jo’s body began to shake as a laugh escaped her thin lips and sharp teeth. “You’re obviously in a forest, and like I said before, Dean’s not coming for you.” Jo stepped lithely around Sam with a satisfied bounce in her step, making her blood tipped hair spring around her face as Sam clenched his fists for a moment. 

“Why does this place feel so familiar?” Sam had a checklist of questions in his head, and at the moment, just like many other times in his life, he used that checklist to keep himself as calm as possible. He couldn’t get rid of the uncomfortable feeling of pure dread that had settled in the pit of his stomach. He wasn’t sure how honest this thing was going to be or how many questions it would even answer, but this wasn’t as much about getting answers as trying to keep his head right now, he could sort the information out later. Jo paused for a moment, tilting her head to the side as if reading something above Sam’s head then looked back at him. 

“Have you ever heard of the Sea of Trees?” Sam took a moment, scanning through his memory for any mention of the phrase before remembering a case he worked with his father once. 

“Dean had the flu that christmas…Dad got a call from a friend who needed him in western Kentucky, Dean was too sick to take care of me so Dad let me go with him… ” Sam saw the mist around him now, it swirled and shifted as he remembered. A short distance away, the forest began to grow lighter as a younger Sam stepped out from behind a tree, his father appearing behind him shortly. 

He stopped talking and watched the memory play out in horror as whatever was masquerading as Jo turned around, leaning on a nearby tree, arms crossed with an intrigued grin on her face. They had been walking through the forest for hours that day, helping a friend of his fathers, another hunter, his dad had told him. John hadn’t explained anything, as usual, but Sam hadn’t learned to question his father yet so they walked around in silence for a while. 

The mist that formed his dad spoke up, John’s voice was hollow, but it took him straight back to that moment. “Sammy, come here for a minute.” Sam stopped, turned and looked up at his father warily, weighing the risks of asking his father what was going on or just hoping he was told what they were in for. John took a heavy breath before he continued, looking down at his son with a troubled expression, “Out here, especially out here, don’t you ever let me out of your site, not for a single moment.” Sam’s inquisitive nature got the better of him upon seeing the fleeting moment of fear in his father's face 

“What is this place?” Sam had been on hunts in the woods before, many of them still gave him nightmares, but this place seemed completely lifeless. He didn’t feel right calling it a forest, they were usually full of life, even if it was monstrous. To this day he still didn’t understand why his father had brought him out here, they had no weapons, no salt and it had been broad daylight. 

“It’s a bit of a mystery kiddo.” The last word startled Sam a bit, cutting straight through his gut, his dad had never called him kiddo before. Gabriel on the other hand… 

“Why are you doing this? What are you?” Jo laughed again as she turned away from the memory to look at him briefly. 

The creature managed a lewd grin as it seemed to scan Sam, taking utter delight in whatever it found in him. “Oh, you really are the smart one. Honest answer, I’m bored, wanted to play so I brought you here at someone else's request. Poor Sammy, someone really wanted to make you suffer. The reason’s rather petty if you ask me.” Sam had to focus, the list of questions in his head was growing by leaps and bounds now, but it didn’t seem to be helping him much this time. 

“Who is it this time? Lucifer? I don’t know what he’s planning but this isn’t gonna… ” 

“Oh good grief, not you too. Lucifer has nothing to do with this. They asked me the same question, what is it with you guys?” 

Sam almost found the thing’s frustration amusing, though it did nothing to ease the undercurrent of discomfort he was feeling in this place. “So Dean is here then? Where is he? Is he with Cas?” The only response Sam got was an annoyed eye roll as they looked back at the makeshift stage to watch the rest of the performance, willing his temper down as he heard the voice next to him giggle at his obvious frustration. 

“You can call me Krè.” 

John was staring at Sam, determining how best to go about explaining everything to his son. Watching this moment on replay gave Sam a much different perspective. He still winced as John began to explain, knowing what was coming next. All young Sam had heard was the phrase Sea of Trees before something in them grabbed his attention. What had originally looked like a dangling branch a few feet over his head was in fact, a blond haired slightly bloated man about his father’s age. His dad’s eyes trailed his son's glaring look of uneasiness, quickly covering Sam’s eyes before they turned around. He latched onto the phrase instantly now, his memory wandering back through his years of research for any link to the name. 

“I’m in Japan?” Sam was impressed, and slightly horrified at the distance he had been transferred for someone’s amusement. 

“More or less.” 

As he glanced back over, Sam watched his father hand him a small hatchet, instructing him to cut down as many nearby branches as he could. John walked over to the body, shaking his head slightly as he drew the knife from his back pocket and cut the rope right above the man’s head.   
By mid afternoon John and Sam were standing side by side, watching the body of the man his father had called Jamie burn on the pyre they had both constructed silently. “Your father had a rather fucked up idea of family bonding.” Krè chuckled under her breath, watching Sam squirm uncomfortably out of the corner of her eye. 

“Hey dad, I hate to ask this, but why are we doing this in the middle of the forest? Isn’t this kinda dangerous?” Sam had expected his dad to give him the usual glare when he turned to look at him, instead, it was the closest he had ever seen his dad come to crying. 

“This, is one of the few places in the world where the dead and dying can’t leave son.” Even in the hunting world that was a strange thing to hear. 

“Is that why we didn’t bring salt?” 

His father looked down, unsurprised that Sam would make a connection that quickly. “Unfortunately, son.” He had nightmares about that place for months after they had gotten back. 

“What did he mean, the dead can’t leave? Is that true here too?” Sam looked around as the darkness encroached where his father had just been, the man still swung in the tree though, his face had grown distorted, eyes and tongue bulging out of his dark purple mouth. It’s face morphed as he swung back and forth, Sam grimaced as Gabriel’s face now swung in the tree, his feet banging against it as if blown about by a non existent breeze. Sam’s eyes began to sting, everywhere he went Gabriel’s face was all he could see, twisted in pain and fear. Watching Gabriel die alone over and over in his nightmares had been enough to drive him to drink every night, but he wasn’t sure if he could come back from what this place was throwing at him. An uneasy pressure in the back of his head grew as he watched the transparent angel lurch and vanish back into the mist it had been created out of. 

Sam realized he had somehow dropped to his knees, uncertain of when the world around him started to swirl. The static that had been hovering in the back of his brain now pushed it’s way forward, enveloping his consciousness. Small whispers, to faint for him to be able to make out clearly penetrated his ears, sinking into his mind and taking root like small black vines behind his eyes. He frantically looked around for the creature that had Jo’s face and panicked when she was nowhere to be found. Sam was slipping away, slowly losing sense of everything but the pain he had caused others, here it felt like all of his mistakes were etching themselves in his veins. Just before Sam sipped into unconsciousness, he felt a sharp pain in his stomach and looked down reeling from the discovery his vision darted up toward the trees, noticing a large maliciously grinning mouth suspended in the darkness. Shortly afterward, everything faded to black.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9  
Dean was quickly running out of bullets, kicking himself for leaving the bag in the circle, now surrounded by the miserable creatures that inhabited this hell hole. Castiel’s body was hanging in every tree, his constant groans of pain wearing Dean down with every heavy step. Cas’ static position on the map however drove him forward, and they were close. 

Gabriel walked by Dean’s side, both making sparse casual conversation as they went attempting to ignore or shoot whatever had come in their way. They found that telling each other jokes, relieved the tension they had both been feeling up to this point. Gabriel stopped mid joke as they reached a very small clearing in the forest, the sparse amount of moonlight that made it through the small canopy sapped the green color right out of the ground, causing the small soft field of grass to turn a slate grey color. On the other edge of the clearing was a huddled trench coat and a mess of dark hair. Dean felt his heart squeeze itself painfully and his legs were instantly pumped full of adrenaline ready to sprint across the whole world just to get to his angel. The thought stopped him instantly, the word mine floating out of his head like a balloon. It stayed in front of him for a moment before floating off into the sky, joining the rest of the white drifting words he had mistaken for clouds. Gabriel chuckled behind him. 

“It’s good to see at least a part of my dad’s work is still here.” Dean’s instinct kicked in, desperately searching for an explanation for that one word as he looked over at Gabriel. 

“Don’t.” Gabriel was staring at Castiel, he refused to even let Dean get a word out, instead finally deciding to say his peace in the whole matter. “I honestly have no idea what your hangup with this is, but it’s not important to me. It’s important to him, that naive little lump of jacket over there needs to hear the truth.” 

Dean’s face was red at this point, but he knew Gabriel was right about what Cas needed to hear, what did Cas need to hear? Two words floated out of his head this time, Perfect words? Dean opened his mouth to explain when he saw one single word come out of Gabriel’s mind, Sammy. Gabriel caught Dean’s gaze and looked up, his face visibly falling as he watched the name float away into the ether. Gabriel looked back, choosing to ignore the concern wafting out of his head as Sam’s name appeared again and again. “What I just said, you need to show him the truth. He may be too far gone for you to just yell at him. This place shows you only what it wants you to see, and it’s had Cas alone for a while. Don’t be afraid to do something drastic, you may need to just to get his attention.” 

The air around them suddenly felt drained, and Gabriel looked everywhere as if expecting to find something repulsive. “Hello cousin. How are you liking my playground, I know you weren’t a fan of it the last time you were here, but surely the touch of nostalgia should make you happy. It seems everyone is clamoring for a bit of the old nowadays, yes?” Krè stood behind them, his long dark hair glinted in the sparse light, Dean looked down to see a black cane in his hand, a silver handle shaped like a vicious dog, green emeralds where his eyes should have been glinted in the darkness. 

Dean hitched his hands in his back pocket, feeling for the map as he took a small step back from the monster in front of him. “Apparently your whole family has issues with personal space.” Dean looked over at Gabriel with an expression on his face that Dean had never seen before. 

Gabriel’s nostrils flared the instant Sam’s scent hit his nose, that smell was burned in his brain and it made his head swim. He became enraged when he sourced the origin back to Krè, biting back a growl and the impulse to hurt the entity in front of him. 

“I’m getting bored. So I decided to spice things up a bit.” With a small wave of his hand, Gabriel felt an electricity buzz through him, like his whole body had been asleep. “There, now you can heal. Don’t say I never gave you anything Gabriel.” The angel’s name rolled off Krè’s tongue in a way that made Dean want to punch the guy senseless. Gabriel’s stomach dropped out from under him as he let his mind wander through his biggest nightmares concerning Sam. 

Krè walked over toward a larger tree, a large low hanging branch almost acting as a fence, bordering the peaceful looking meadow. In one swift motion he grabbed the handle of his cane and pulled a long knife out from the Dog’s head. From the glint it gave off Dean could tell it was incredibly sharp and he followed his first instinct, stepping in between Gabriel and Krè. This drew an exasperated sigh from both of them and Dean drew his brows up in confusion finally asking him a question that had been beating the back of his brain since they got here. “Why haven’t you just killed any of us?” 

The laugh that came out of the dark presence in front of him made Dean’s skin crawl and his heart dropped down into the pit of his stomach. It sounded cracked, wild and broken as it rose around all of them at the absurdity of the question. “First off, and never forget this lesson boy.” A bitter rage tinged the madness in his voice as Krè came closer to Dean, backing him into the nearest tree, playing with the knife in his hand. “ People in this universe say there are things that are far worse than death. I am that thing Dean.” Krè punctuated the end of his sentence, paused, and then looked down at his nails casually playing with the knife in the other hand, not menacingly just twirling absentmindedly. “Plus, death refuses to collect any of my victims, none live, but they can’t die either. Forever stuck on the verge of death.” 

With that, Krè walked over toward the large branch again aiming the knife over his head and bringing it through the tree in one slice, leaving both Dean and Gabriel stunned and terrifyingly impressed before settling on horrified. With a muffled groan that sounded almost completely human the large branch fell, the new knob began to ooze a blue sap-like substance, covering the ring. Krè turned to look at both of them and smiled. “I promise I always play fair with family Gabriel, you have time to get to him, to heal him. If you can find him.” With a vicious laugh Krè disappeared again, Sam’s face appeared in the blue film now running down the tree toward the roots. 

Dean felt sick watching the bleeding tree, his brothers face twisting in agony as he could see the fog swirling in and around and actually through Sam’s entire body, glancing back over at Cas, in the distance he could see the same thing happening to him. Dean wanted to sprint across instantly but his eyes stayed glued to the scene playing out on the tree like some fucked up drive in. Gabriel audibly moaned in pain as he saw Sam began to weep, not just cry but openly, unknowingly, weep. A loud voice repeating the last words Gabriel had ever said to Sam. “You are asking me to help you kill my brother. My brother Sam, you of all people should know what you are asking me to do. Are you truly that fucking selfish Winchester? In fact, why should I have to lose my brother? just because you don’t want to lose yours.” 

SNAP! 

Gabriel could see Dean flinch as the sound reverberated throughout the forest. Castiel, he noticed, was completely unaffected. Gabriel looked like he was going to explain, looking at Dean with guilt plastered all over him. Sam dropped to his knees and Gabriel’s attention was once again completely on what was playing out in front of him. The tall man dropped his head, slowly pulling a blade out of his boot, his eyes watery and glazed over. Gabriel’s body surged toward the tree, “Sam, Sammy no. Sammy don’t listen. Shit, SAM!” Dean could almost see the man break in front of him, his own reality caving in momentarily as he watched helplessly. Sam plunged the knife into his stomach and looked down at the blood covering his hands before leaning back against a tree, a pained grin spreading across his face. His hands wrapped around the knife, pressing into the wound before slumping over, passed out. Gabriel couldn’t breath, watching for any sign of life, he finally began to panic again when he noticed Sam’s shoulders moving slightly up and down.

Gabriel jumped at a shoulder on his hand, Dean was giving him the map, saying something, but everything was just too muddled. His world was ending before he even had a chance to get it back and he couldn’t fucking breathe. Dean looked frustrated, considering the air around Gabriel for a moment before he walked toward the guy and gripped both of his shoulders. “Gabriel, hey man, you’ve got to snap out of it. I’ll be here,” Dean pointed over to where Cas was still hunched over, his frame shuddering and shaking. “Go save Sammy.” 

That seemed to get Gabriel moving, feeling the mist fly off of him as he looked down at the map. He could make it in time, he had to. He watched as Dean looked back over at Cas, the word terrified wafting from his mind and drifting off with every other worried word as he took a deep breath. “Go get ‘em tiger.” Gabriel said, making Dean crack a small smile as he pointed above Gabriel’s head to see Sam streaming out of his mind one word after another. Gabriel watched as Dean started to jog over toward Cas, and something inside of him lit up for the first time since they got here, a very dangerous feeling in this place, and Gabriel had to suppress a shudder as he pushed the emotion down for the moment. By the time Dean was just about running over to Castiel’s spot, Gabriel had quietly caged his new found hope and took off. Gabriel had one thought on his mind as he began to move faster than humanly possible, he had to get to Sam before it was too late, so Gabriel ran.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Castiel couldn’t see the glowing blue eyes flickering like fireflies in the treeline. He couldn’t hear the horrifying groan at his feet. Cas was focused on the still living empty vessel before him, tears flowing unnoticed starting to pool in the grey lit grass between his knees. He couldn’t see that either. All Castiel could focus on through his flooded vision were glassy green eyes, staring blankly into space blinking his vacant expression right through him. Castiel could feel the pain shred through his guts as he couldn’t stop staring at the direct result of his failure. He had long since completely smothered the nagging voice in his head asking all the annoying questions. The grace that had reached out to Dean’s body earlier now curled in on itself. It’s lack of conviction was much harder to ignore, but at this point Castiel didn’t didn’t trust any part of himself.  
Dean noticed the glowing eyes of the horrid tree-like gremlins, he could see more mist form around Cas’ trembling frame, the shoulders of the trench coat shivering silently in the space. Dean wasn’t paying attention to the awful pained sound carrying itself through the whole field. He’d been calling his name from halfway, taking most of the distance at an uneasy sprint, shocked at how big this meadow was. Cas wasn’t responding and the closer Dean got, the louder and more unintentionally desperate they became. Dean’s chest grew unbearably tight, his heart ice cold, frozen in fear. Castiel had been out here suffering like this, whatever this was; so it made no sense to him that his panic was just now taking control of him.

Dean didn’t notice any of that either. As Dean ran, shouting at his angel fitfully, the desire to see his face was all Dean could focus on, until Castiel turned around.

Dean’s voice assaulted the back of Castiel’s head, he ignored it at first, writing it off as further proof he was slipping into madness. The louder it grew, the more it grated on him, Dean’s voice still calling his name created a headache ramming and radiating through his body until it grew too loud. His vision began to grow red around the edges, his muscles tightened up and he sneered at the approaching archangel, and without warning, Castiel erupted into a run, lunging at michael, only glancing back for a moment at where Dean’s body had been. 

“Michael!” Castiel growled as the rest of his speech became unintelligible as he straddled Dean’s body, mindlessly laying blow after blow. Castiel could hear the sickening sound of bone crunching as his fist connected with his brother’s nose, shaking his fist as he withdrew wet knuckles and aimed for another crushing blow. 

“Cas, it’s me. Cas, please… stop. Come on, snap out of it man!” Dean could feel and taste the iron and thickness run down the back of his throat. Not a single punch Cas landed hurt for too long though. He wasn’t certain, but he could feel that familiar meticulous electricity run through his skin instinctively mending every wound Castiel’s fists caused. Dean didn’t move to fight back. He didn’t try and defend himself after the first blow cut his left temple. The moment he was certain he could feel Castiel’s grace touch him, Dean closed his eyes, letting the feeling of comfort and warmth draw out a willing sigh from his chest. This time, the words didn’t pop out of his head like before, it seemed to be coaxed out of his lungs, but Dean was more than willing to give it. 

“Home.” 

Castiel threw another punch, shattering Dean’s jaw, his grace smoothing over the wound as soon as it had been made. Dean could tell something was affecting Cas now as the blows were coming faster and harder. It was taking every ounce of restraint Dean had to not move under Cas furious assault. Gabriel said he might have to do something drastic to get Cas’ attention. He still wasn’t certain that this was what would work, but the bits of Cas that seemed to recognise Dean flooded his mind and ran through his chest, making him feel oddly reassured. He stopped pleading with Cas, now letting the syllables and phrases pour out of his mouth. 

“Cas, you’re my home, man.” another blow grazed his eye, making Dean’s vision go white for a moment causing him to let out a grunt before continuing, the flood of words unwilling to stop now. 

“Cas, it’s me, I promise, everyone is fine. You’re safe man, please look at me.” This time Dean opened his eyes, staring directly into Cas’ face, willing the menacing black fog off his eyes. Another blow landed, slower this time but with no less force, breaking his nose again. This time though, Castiel’s grace refused to heal it, the strange pulse under Dean’s skin still encouraging him to trust it. He slowly placed either hand gently on Castiel’s thighs, allowing the relief at this small touch to coax more words out of him. The voice in his head deciding to berate him later for allowing so much weakening vulnerability, but right now Dean was willing to make himself look like a complete fool if it meant not losing his angel. 

“Cas, come back. I need you here.” Dean’s voice dropped to a more gentle timbre as the rain of fists finally subsided, Cas resting his hand on the side of Dean’s face his thumb wiping the blood trickling down on his upper lip as the fog over his eyes dissipated a bit more. Dean could feel bits of Cas settle down inside him, where they belonged, as his nose started to throb. Dean absentmindedly began to lightly worry small circles into Cas’ thighs, just craving the contact.

“Baby, please. I’m right here.”

Dean’s face flushed bright red as the nickname spilled out of his mouth. He didn’t have too long to marvel as the rest of the mist slithered off of Castiel’s lids. For a moment Dean could see everything process through those blue eyes before his lips were covered by a mouth desperately seeking warmth. Dean heard himself sigh as he grabbed Cas by the shoulders in a frantic attempt to bring him closer, to stop the shivering they both felt.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11  
Gabriel’s legs were pumping as fast as he could ad yet right now, his heart would win the race for fastest moving muscle in his body. His entire being surged with an uncomfortable mess of warring emotions ranging from fear to hope to flat out terror. He glanced down at the map, dashing to his right through a small ring of trees, wondering to himself how the trees, as claustrophobically close together as they were, never seemed to touch each other. Even the roots running over moss covered rocks and through loops and bridges made by other nearby tree roots seemed rigidly alone. The thought passed through his mind as if it were standing still, anxious to be left behind in such a desolate place. Sam’s face crashed into him over and over, dissipating as it hit. Every time the freezing mist brushed his skin, a new horrifying image of Sam battered his head around. Gabriel wasn’t sure what it was trying to accomplish, but the small amount of hope mixed with that nearly all consuming fear drove his legs faster with every freezing burst. The whole way to Sam, Gabriel prayed to anyone who would remotely consider listening to him. 

“Father, please, please don’t let it be too late.” 

After another slight course correction, Gabriel was almost right on top of Sam’s location. He was starting to find it harder to breath counting himself lucky that it wasn’t really important to him, but the feeling was still unpleasant. It was still pitch dark around him, except for the blue eme’s blurring by him as he finally let in a deep breath and began to yell out Sam's name, hoping to get any response. 

Sam hurt with every flex of his muscles, every breath created a wave of fire that rushed through his entire body. He was starting to black out again, looking down to where the rusted knife stuck out of his gut, the blood running over his hands now. The ripped up fabric around the wound had soaked up as much of the blood as it could before allowing it to spill from the still impaled flesh. Sam could feel his body shiver as the air seemed to chill through the sweat now beading his forehead as a wave of nausea ripped through his guts. He was dying. The frustration and impotent feeling oozed through his veins, replacing his own life currently pouring out of him. 

Just as his vision darkened around the edges again, forcing his brain to shut down Gabriel’s ghost rushed through the fog, screaming his name. For the first time, he was actually glad he was passing out, he couldn’t take the angel’s form stalking him again. Telling Sam how selfish he had been, how it was his fault that Gabe was dead. Gabriel stabbing repeatedly at his unrequited feelings was bad enough and he was slightly grateful that whatever was doing this to him didn’t make Kali appear this time. The sneer on her face as she held Gabriel in front of him felt as bad as the knife in his gut. Sam felt something familiar just before he lost consciousness, a warm tingle entering under his skin, attempting to provide him comfort. 

Gabriel’s heart stopped before his legs did, finally right in front of an unconscious Sam. He’d seen him roll his head toward Gabriel’s voice. Sam’s face showed how the short time he’d been here had shattered his heart to pieces and if Sam would allow it, Gabriel would spend eternity patiently putting it back together. 

“Sammy, I’m right here, i’m sorry this is gonna hurt a bit.” Gabriel’s voice was low and soothing as his hands gripped the blade handle and pulled it out, eliciting a painful groan from a now awake Sam.

“Can’t you just leave me alone, let me di-” 

Gabriel put his hand over Sam’s mouth before he could finish his sentence. “Nope, not fake, see.” Gabriel relished in the feel of his hand over Sam’s lips, the cold skin warming as Gabriel’s grace went to work, replicating more blood and mending every ripped muscle fibre before just running up and down Sam’s skin, starving at the lack of contact.

For a moment Gabriel could see Sam’s eyes go wide the corners of his mouth moving up under Gabriel’s palm, instantly replaced by the memory of their last argument. The trees around them rustled as the small monsters surrounding them in the canopy began replaying the argument, no vision, just the mocking sound of venom being spouted at a very hurt and confused Sam. 

Gabriel kept one hand on Sam’s mouth for the moment, Sam still to shocked to protest the hurt and glad for any kind of comforting contact wrapping his now blood covered fingers toward the back of his head, glad to feel a warm, strong pulse underneath, his thumb stroking Sam’s jaw. He wanted to make sure Sam was paying attention to every word he said, that he could see the absolute honesty in his face this time. He couldn’t afford to let Sam misunderstand anything.  
“Don’t listen to them,” Gabriel’s eyes began to glow like melting gold careful to keep his gaze unchanged, fixed directly into Sam’s eyes. “I remember what I said, not a moment has gone by since I came back that I don’t regret every word. I didn’t mean a word of it. It’s no excuse, and I know it’s unforgivable, but I promise I didn’t.” Kali’s voice broke in over the din above them, a whiff of her perfume crossed Gabriel’s nose with that underlying smell of decay and his nose wrinkled as he finally took his other hand off Sam’s mouth, now content to frame his face. Gabriel’s face fell as he continued to ghost his thumbs over the skin covering Sam’s jaw. “Come on Sam, I came there that night to save you, I knew what Lucifer was going to do. It was the price I chose to pay, not just to save your life. I wanted to see if there was any way to send Luci back.”

Sam fought every muscle in his body not to lean into Gabriel’s touch, the contact absolute bliss after the cold.

“Why?” Sam couldn’t get any more than that out, every question he’d had on that list burning to ash as his mind continued to process the reality in front of him. He couldn’t pull his eyes away from the angel practically straddling his lap, holding Sam’s face in his hands. His gaze flicked between Gabe’s stare and his lips waiting for an answer. 

“You did this to me Samshine,” the nickname made Sam squirm slightly under Gabriel’s gaze, hoping the angel couldn’t see the blood filling his cheeks. “I fucked up kid, I gave up on my brother, and frankly the fact that you wouldn’t do the same pissed me off at first. I thought I was mad at you, turns out I was wrong.” Gabriel sighed, Sam watched as his hands dropped to their sides, his body instinctively jumping to chase the touch for a while longer, “I know Lucifer has done some pretty fucked up stuff, but he’s my brother, at least in the cage he’s alive. In the cage, I at least have a chance to get him back someday, however long that’ll take.” Gabriel looked down at the roots surrounding them, Lucifer’s name etched in the frustration on his face. 

Sam couldn’t take the lack of contact anymore, the look in Gabriel’s eyes mirrored the comfort Sam felt spread through him as he grabbed Gabriel’s hands and absentmindedly started running his thumbs across the tops of Gabriel’s hands. Gabriel brought Sam’s fingers up to his face, the blood on Sam bathing Gabe’s cheeks as he closed his eyes and his muscles finally relaxed. Every fiber in his body was sore, now aware at how much tension had been held in it and without warning hot tears began cascading down to Sam’s hands as the larger man instinctively leaned forward determined to comfort the angel weeping in his lap. His giant arms wrapped around Gabriel’s now shaking frame, clearly not used to the vast amounts of fear pumping through his system. Gabriel’s body leaned into the touch, burying his face in Sam’s neck, 

“I’m so sorry Sam. I know I fucked up bad. I honestly don’t even understand why we’re… why you’re...” Sam gripped Gabriel tighter to his chest at the unfinished sentence letting his fingers wander up and run through Gabriel’s hair as the angel grabbed at Sam’s shirt. 

“Gabe.” the name rolled through Gabriel, every muscle seeming to seize and then relax under the weight of it. “God, I love you.” the confession spilled out, just as much a surprise to Sam, completely unashamed by the bluntness of it. He felt Gabe’s skin warm slightly above him as the corners of his mouth turned up under Sam’s neck. Gabriel pulled back, drying the tears on his face his eyes now the color of pure molten gold, his smile spreading out to the slightly wrinkled corners. The grin on Gabe reminded Sam of the cheshire cat, it’s heat spreading out to every part of his face. 

“Sammich…”

Their eyes closed as Gabriel lit his mouth on Sam’s, instantly catching both of them on fire. Gabriel drew in a deep breath, nearly bursting his lungs in an attempt to breathe in as much of Sam as he could. Gabe’s thumbs ghosted Sam’s cheekbones as his fingers snaked their way through the long brown hair eventually coming to rest at the nape of his neck determined to keep Sam close. Sam’s hands trembled slightly but refused to move, his long fingers spread across Gabriel’s back, pressing as much of his body into Sam’s as he could. He could feel the grace that had been running along his skin began to shift and move up towards his head. Sam didn’t care where it went at the moment though, he had desperately missed the contact that had become so unspokenly familiar between the two before everything had gone to shit. 

“I love you, I love you, I love you.” Gabriel’s voice set on replay in Sam’s mind, the words and emotions filling up the space and echoing around like a cavern causing an audible sigh that was instantly swallowed up by Gabriel’s starved mouth. 

*Clap, clap, clap* 

“Well that was much more entertaining than I thought it would be.” Two figures stepped out of the darkness, interrupting Gabriel’s loving ministrations causing both men to jump to their feet in an instant


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

 

Gabriel rolled his eyes, hiding a grin as Sam stepped in front of him. “Winchesters, I swear you two are just alike sometimes.”

“Where’s Dean?” Sam gritted his teeth, a fire in his gut driving him to protect his own, his arm reaching back slightly to grab Gabe’s hand, grounding himself in the comfort it provided the both of them. Gabriel looked up at the man in awe, not for the first time, as he took Sam’s hand. Gabriel realized it wasn’t just a protective gesture, Sam was smart, mostly because he was observant, but it didn’t take much effort to see how angry Sam was growing as the dots connected themselves. Just behind the familiar pair of vacuous eyes and dark pinstripe suit, a man stepped out, the farm weathered face instantly recognizable to Sam, made Gabriel reach into his pocket.

“Dean and Cas are both safe, I sent them where I am about to send you two. You had another way out?” Kré’s head tilted slightly, his smile making Sam rock back on his heels nervously, his grip on Gabriel’s hand only waiting a moment for a reciprocal squeeze from him. I’ve got your back kid. Sam could feel the reassurance in the grace running between the two as Gabriel huffed and stepped out next to him. 

Sam’s eyes went wide, his face falling at the sight of the worn man in front of him, his green hat cocked at an odd angle on his head, pushing the brim low over his dark, angry eyes. Kré’s eyebrows shot up in amusement as the man behind him began to speak, the rage tinting his voice. “You took my life from me, you bastard.” Sam’s face fell with every word from Joseph Welch’s mouth, involuntarily moving backwards under the assault attempting to look small and harmless. “You’re the reason Const-”

Gabriel was furious, “Oh, I know who you are.” Joseph was cut off mid sentence. “I refuse to let you monologue like some evil genius when all you have managed, my friend, is making one of the biggest mistakes of your life. Trust me Jo, compared to this, cheating on Constance was just an oopsie.” Gabriel moved forward a step toward the now shocked man, watching his face grow red as he continued his tirade. “You made this mess, and personally I’m sick of everyone trying to kill the messenger. Sam and Dean didn’t ruin anything, they cleaned up your filth, now shut up for a moment and let the adults talk.” Gabriel turned toward Kré, pulling Sam closer to his side, leaning in as Sam wrapped his arm around Gabe’s shoulder. “I’m begging you one more time, he didn’t know what he was doing, please don’t do this. Let him go Kré. Please.”

Sam was almost shocked at the sadness in Gabriel’s voice and from the look on Joseph’s face, the tone had a grievous effect as Joseph’s skin drained of the bright color it had just held, prompting Sam to chime in. “I don’t know what Gabe’s talking about but please, just let him go.” 

Kré’s laugh was short and bitter, “You know how this works cousin. I don’t know why you would even dare ask honestly. I guess you thought it was worth one more shot, eh?” Kré smiled as he moved away from Joseph snapping his fingers, a white piece of paper appeared in his hand, along with the map. “If it makes you feel any better. Now I’m sending you back before someone stupidly offers another trade around here.” Kré smirked. Something shifted in Gabriel’s pocket and he shoved his hand in, finding it quickly closing around a small strip of rough paper. 

In an instant his stomach lurched and everything around him faded out and back in, standing with Sam in a neatly painted livingroom blood spotted all over the both of them. Dean leapt up from his spot on the couch where he’d been wrapped up in Castiel’s arms waiting for both of them and explaining everything to his very confused but very happy angel. 

“Sammy!” Dean slowed after taking quick stock of his bloody brother, seeing no wounds, and finally taking notice of the smaller angel now latched to his brother’s side. Something was still wrong though, Sam looked beaten and weary, just like Dean did, but he almost looked defeated. “Sammy, what’s wrong?” Castiel stood up, a look of concern on his face for Sam as his grace rushed out to meet his brother, flooding Gabriel with a mess of pure joy and relief at seeing the archangel safe. Gabriel spoke up, pulling the paper out of his pocket finally and looked down frowning as he read the darkened print on the newspaper clipping in his hand. 

“Joseph Welch… found in his home on December 14th 2005, died from an apparent gunshot wound to the head.” Dean’s brows knit together in momentary confusion before looking at Gabriel, “He was the one who sent us there? He called your cousin, uh what’s his name, creepy?” 

Gabriel let out a slight laugh before turning to Sam. “Sam, we couldn’t have saved him, he’d called on Kré the night he decided to die. It was far too late before we even got there. I’m certain Kré did that on purpose.” 

Dean leaning into Castiel’s arms wrapped around his waist, his head breathing in Cas’ scent, letting it continue to calm him as he nuzzled his nose into the warm tufts of dark hair draped over his shoulder. He was grateful for the moment, the silence, as no one mentioned trauma or emotions. Sam didn’t say a word about the way Dean’s hands were draped on top of Castiel’s own, and Dean didn’t mention when Sam sat down on Missouri’s couch, pulling Gabriel down with him, wrapping as much of himself around Gabe as he was allowed. Sam’s muscles warmed as Gabriel allowed himself to be enveloped in Sam’s arms, for a moment content to let the world be.

“Is there any way to free them?” Gabriel’s heart melted at the question that was so obviously Sam all over. Missouri chose this moment to wander back in from the kitchen, a tray in her hands that Dean rushed to help her with until she gave him the eye. Gabriel laughed as he watched Dean wander back to Cas like nothing had happened, smiling his thanks as the amazing woman handed him a warm mug of liquid chocolate Gabriel devoured instantly, closing his eyes for a moment as his cup was refilled with the same delicious cocoa. 

“Yes, and you will, but you have a much bigger battle to fight right now. Sam, don’t let this distract you, what you face won’t be easy, but now,” she looked at all four of them, her expression alone defining now as them all together as a family, “ you have a shot.” She looked straight at Gabriel first, “You have your family, don’t let that go now you know just how precious it is.” 

Sam squirmed under her gaze, unsure of what she was going to say to him. “Boy, you are lucky to have so much love, both of you, and you shouldn’t be ashamed of it.” her eyes darted from Sam to Dean and back before continuing. “I don’t need to tell you two to hold on for dear life, And Dean, if I find you hurt that precious angel of yours in any way, no one will be able to save you from my wrath.” 

A few more cups and poignant conversations later, Sam and Gabriel reclined on the couch, listening to music, still not ready to move away from the other, Dean and Castiel having long gone up to bed at Missouri's insistence they stay the night. “Gabe,” Sam spoke, a hint of sleep in his voice as he continued to lazily drag his fingers through Gabriel’s hair, the warm head resting comfortably on Sam’s chest. Gabe could only muster a questioning grunt as he slowly opened his eyes and looked at Sam’s, still closed, and decided they needed to be in bed with a snap of his fingers, something he’d sorely missed. “Did you just? Nevermind, not important. You said your death was the price you had to pay.” 

Gabriel didn’t like where this conversation was going but he had vowed to be honest with Sam, “Yes?” his attempt at a casual tone failed miserably as he felt Sam’s arms tighten around him and warm lips pressed to his forehead, 

“No no, babe.” the last word ghosted over Gabriel’s skin like electricity making him smile. “Nothing like that.” Sam’s arms traveled up and down Gabriel’s now bare back, sending lazy shivers up Gabe’s spine. “I just wanted to know who you, um, paid? I guess.” 

Gabe shook his head and smiled before answering, “ Three old hags with a large pair of scissors. You know they actually own the world's largest ball of yarn. Gabriel chuckled into Sam’s chest as he watched the giant man slowly drift off to sleep peacefully, for once, before placing a kiss over his heart letting his grace settle down between their skin, drifting between the two bodies slowly pulling Gabriel into the closest thing to sleep he wanted to experience right now. “I love you, Samshine.”

Glowing blue sap ran down the saccharine image on the tree where a large branch was now gone, fallen to the forest floor, eliciting a wail from the tree now bleeding sap covering the message on the ema. Now I can’t go back and see my babies, Sam and Dean took them from me. In the darkness and silence, only broken by sickly laughter and steady footfalls the glint of a knife disappeared into a cane as dark eyes took in his new tree and surrounding creatures waiting in the canopy to devour whatever was left of the man’s mind as soon as the great predator left. As he slowly vanished out of sight, the canopy surrounding the newest resident began to shake and toss about violently, the blue mist settled in the words on the ema flickered in fear as the horde slowly crept downward, zeroing in on the last shred of his humanity. One of the creatures dropped to the ground it’s eyes locked onto a folded picture at the base of the tree, it’s head cocked to the side in confusion for a moment before tossing it away, the children’s faces staring at their father now.

It was too late to scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was my first attempt at Fan-fic, at any serious writing really. I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave comments below, let me know what you think. :)


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